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Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 22nd of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 30th of September.
Imperial Brands's next dividend payment will be UK£0.31 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK£1.88 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Imperial Brands has a trailing yield of 9.0% on the current share price of £20.89. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.
See our latest analysis for Imperial Brands
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Imperial Brands distributed an unsustainably high 119% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. The company paid out 95% of its free cash flow over the last year, which we think is outside the ideal range for most businesses. Companies usually need cash more than they need earnings - expenses don't pay themselves - so it's not great to see it paying out so much of its cash flow.
Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Imperial Brands's payments were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we are concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. Fortunately for readers, Imperial Brands's earnings per share have been growing at 12% a year for the past five years. It's not encouraging to see Imperial Brands paying out basically all of its earnings and cashflow to shareholders. We're glad that earnings are growing rapidly, but we're wary of the company stretching itself financially.