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Antero Midstream Corporation (NYSE:AM) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Thus, you can purchase Antero Midstream's shares before the 24th of July in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 7th of August.
The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.225 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.90 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Antero Midstream stock has a trailing yield of around 6.1% on the current share price of US$14.77. 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.
See our latest analysis for Antero Midstream
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. Antero Midstream distributed an unsustainably high 111% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. 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. Dividends consumed 69% of the company's free cash flow last year, which is within a normal range for most dividend-paying organisations.
It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Antero Midstream fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Very few companies are able to sustainably pay dividends larger than their reported earnings.
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 earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. For this reason, we're glad to see Antero Midstream's earnings per share have risen 20% per annum over the last five years.