Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Empiric Student Property plc (LON:ESP) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. You can purchase shares before the 5th of September in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 20th of September.

Empiric Student Property's next dividend payment will be UK£0.013 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of UK£0.05 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Empiric Student Property has a trailing yield of 5.3% on the current share price of £0.939. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Empiric Student Property can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for Empiric Student Property

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Empiric Student Property paid out 72% of its earnings to investors last year, a normal payout level for most businesses. While Empiric Student Property seems to be paying out a very high percentage of its income, REITs have different dividend payment behaviour and so, while we don't think this is great, we also don't think it is unusual. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. Over the last year it paid out 73% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range for most companies.

It's positive to see that Empiric Student Property's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Fortunately for readers, Empiric Student Property's earnings per share have been growing at 17% a year for the past five years. Empiric Student Property is paying out a bit over half its earnings, which suggests the company is striking a balance between reinvesting in growth, and paying dividends. Given the quick rate of earnings per share growth and current level of payout, there may be a chance of further dividend increases in the future.

Empiric Student Property also issued more than 5% of its market cap in new stock during the past year, which we feel is likely to hurt its dividend prospects in the long run. It's hard to grow dividends per share when a company keeps creating new shares.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the last 5 years, Empiric Student Property has lifted its dividend by approximately 20% a year on average. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.

The Bottom Line

Should investors buy Empiric Student Property for the upcoming dividend? Higher earnings per share generally lead to higher dividends from dividend-paying stocks over the long run. However, we'd also note that Empiric Student Property is paying out more than half of its earnings and cash flow as profits, which could limit the dividend growth if earnings growth slows. Overall, it's hard to get excited about Empiric Student Property from a dividend perspective.

Wondering what the future holds for Empiric Student Property? See what the two analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow

A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.