Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, Inc.'s (NYSE:SOI) investors are due to receive a payment of $0.11 per share on 16th of June. This makes the dividend yield 5.5%, which will augment investor returns quite nicely.
View our latest analysis for Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure
Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions
A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Before making this announcement, Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure was earning enough to cover the dividend, but it wasn't generating any free cash flows. No cash flows could definitely make returning cash to shareholders difficult, or at least mean the balance sheet will come under pressure.
Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise exponentially over the next year. If the dividend extends its recent trend, estimates say the dividend could reach 14%, which we would be comfortable to see continuing.
Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure Doesn't Have A Long Payment History
Looking back, the dividend has been stable, but the company hasn't been paying a dividend for very long so we can't be confident that the dividend will remain stable through all economic environments. Since 2019, the dividend has gone from $0.40 total annually to $0.44. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 2.4% per annum over that time. We like that the dividend hasn't been shrinking. However we're conscious that the company hasn't got an overly long track record of dividend payments yet, which makes us wary of relying on its dividend income.
The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow
The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. It's encouraging to see that Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure has been growing its earnings per share at 51% a year over the past five years. The company doesn't have any problems growing, despite returning a lot of capital to shareholders, which is a very nice combination for a dividend stock to have.
In Summary
Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. While the low payout ratio is a redeeming feature, this is offset by the minimal cash to cover the payments. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 1 warning sign for Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Is Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.