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It looks like Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 19th of February will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 15th of March.
Equifax's next dividend payment will be US$0.39 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$1.56 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Equifax has a trailing yield of 0.9% on the current share price of $177.19. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Equifax's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Equifax can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
Check out our latest analysis for Equifax
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Equifax paid out a comfortable 36% of its profit last year. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. It distributed 36% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level for most companies.
It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. This is why it's a relief to see Equifax earnings per share are up 3.4% per annum over the last five years. Recent growth has not been impressive. Yet there are several ways to grow the dividend, and one of them is simply that the company may choose to pay out more of its earnings as dividends.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, Equifax has lifted its dividend by approximately 26% a year on average. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.