Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 22nd of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 13th of September.
Piper Jaffray Companies's next dividend payment will be US$0.38 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$2.51 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Piper Jaffray Companies stock has a trailing yield of around 3.5% on the current share price of $71.69. 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Piper Jaffray Companies
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. Fortunately Piper Jaffray Companies's payout ratio is modest, at just 29% of profit.
Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.
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 business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. Fortunately for readers, Piper Jaffray Companies's earnings per share have been growing at 11% a year for the past five years.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the last 3 years, Piper Jaffray Companies has lifted its dividend by approximately 26% 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.
To Sum It Up
Should investors buy Piper Jaffray Companies for the upcoming dividend? When companies are growing rapidly and retaining a majority of the profits within the business, it's usually a sign that reinvesting earnings creates more value than paying dividends to shareholders. This is one of the most attractive investment combinations under this analysis, as it can create substantial value for investors over the long run. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating Piper Jaffray Companies more closely.