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Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that GBK Beteiligungen AG (BST:GBQ) is about to go ex-dividend in just 4 days. The ex-dividend date is commonly two business days before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. The ex-dividend date is important as the process of settlement involves at least two full business days. So if you miss that date, you would not show up on the company's books on the record date. Thus, you can purchase GBK Beteiligungen's shares before the 23rd of May in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 27th of May.
The company's next dividend payment will be €0.30 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of €0.30 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that GBK Beteiligungen has a trailing yield of 5.5% on the current share price of €5.50. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
We've discovered 2 warning signs about GBK Beteiligungen. View them for free.
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. GBK Beteiligungen reported a loss after tax last year, which means it's paying a dividend despite being unprofitable. While this might be a one-off event, this is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.
View our latest analysis for GBK Beteiligungen
Click here to see how much of its profit GBK Beteiligungen paid out over the last 12 months.
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 earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. GBK Beteiligungen was unprofitable last year, but at least the general trend suggests its earnings have been improving over the past five years. Even so, an unprofitable company whose business does not quickly recover is usually not a good candidate for dividend investors.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. GBK Beteiligungen's dividend payments are effectively flat on where they were six years ago.