Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Kemper Corporation (NYSE:KMPR) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 14th of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of August.

Kemper's next dividend payment will be US$0.30 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.20 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Kemper has a trailing yield of 1.4% on the current share price of $84.85. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Kemper's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

View our latest analysis for Kemper

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Kemper paid out just 17% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.

Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.

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 fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. That's why it's comforting to see Kemper's earnings have been skyrocketing, up 26% per annum 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. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, Kemper has lifted its dividend by approximately 4.1% a year on average. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because Kemper is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business.

To Sum It Up

Is Kemper an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? 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 strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. Kemper ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention.