It looks like Kri-Kri Milk Industry S.A. (ATH:KRI) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 3 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 22nd of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of August.
Kri-Kri Milk Industry's next dividend payment will be €0.15 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed €0.15 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Kri-Kri Milk Industry has a trailing yield of 3.0% on the current share price of €5.08. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Kri-Kri Milk Industry
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. Kri-Kri Milk Industry paid out a comfortable 46% of its profit last year. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 39% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio.
It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.
Click here to see how much of its profit Kri-Kri Milk Industry paid out over the last 12 months.
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. For this reason, we're glad to see Kri-Kri Milk Industry's earnings per share have risen 16% per annum over the last five years. Earnings per share are growing rapidly and the company is keeping more than half of its earnings within the business; an attractive combination which could suggest the company is focused on reinvesting to grow earnings further. This will make it easier to fund future growth efforts and we think this is an attractive combination - plus the dividend can always be increased later.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Kri-Kri Milk Industry has delivered an average of 15% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.