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Readers hoping to buy Ganesh Housing Corporation Limited (NSE:GANESHHOUC) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. You can purchase shares before the 5th of September in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 14th of October.
Ganesh Housing's next dividend payment will be ₹0.50 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of ₹0.50 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Ganesh Housing has a trailing yield of 1.4% on the current share price of ₹36.25. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for Ganesh Housing
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. Ganesh Housing 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. Considering the lack of profitability, we also need to check if the company generated enough cash flow to cover the dividend payment. If Ganesh Housing didn't generate enough cash to pay the dividend, then it must have either paid from cash in the bank or by borrowing money, neither of which is sustainable in the long term. It paid out 7.0% of its free cash flow as dividends last year, which is conservatively low.
Click here to see how much of its profit Ganesh Housing paid out over the last 12 months.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with falling earnings are riskier for dividend shareholders. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. Ganesh Housing was unprofitable last year and, unfortunately, the general trend suggests its earnings have been in decline over the last 5 years, making us wonder if the dividend is sustainable at all.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Ganesh Housing's dividend payments per share have declined at 8.4% per year on average over the past 10 years, which is uninspiring. It's never nice to see earnings and dividends falling, but at least management has cut the dividend rather than potentially risk the company's health in an attempt to maintain it.