The board of Genus plc (LON:GNS) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 9th of December, with investors receiving £0.217 per share. Including this payment, the dividend yield on the stock will be 1.1%, which is a modest boost for shareholders' returns.

View our latest analysis for Genus

Genus' Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions

Even a low dividend yield can be attractive if it is sustained for years on end. Prior to this announcement, Genus' earnings easily covered the dividend, but free cash flows were negative. Since a dividend means the company is paying out cash to investors, this could prove to be a problem in the future.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 70.2% over the next year. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 32% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.

Dividend Volatility

While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. The dividend has gone from an annual total of £0.133 in 2012 to the most recent total annual payment of £0.32. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 9.2% a year over that time. We have seen cuts in the past, so while the growth looks promising we would be a little bit cautious about its track record.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. Earnings per share has been crawling upwards at 3.1% per year. Genus is struggling to find viable investments, so it is returning more to shareholders. This isn't necessarily bad, but we wouldn't expect rapid dividend growth in the future.

In Summary

Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. With cash flows lacking, it is difficult to see how the company can sustain a dividend payment. We would be a touch cautious of relying on this stock primarily for the dividend income.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 4 Genus analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with our free report on analyst estimates for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.