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Tiptree Inc. (NASDAQ:TIPT) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date occurs one day before the record date which is the day on which shareholders need to be on the company's books in order to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important as the process of settlement involves two full business days. So if you miss that date, you would not show up on the company's books on the record date. Meaning, you will need to purchase Tiptree's shares before the 17th of May to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of May.
The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.06 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.24 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Tiptree has a trailing yield of 1.4% on the current share price of US$17.21. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether Tiptree can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
Check out our latest analysis for Tiptree
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. Tiptree paid out a comfortable 32% of its profit last year.
Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.
Click here to see how much of its profit Tiptree paid out over the last 12 months.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see Tiptree's earnings per share have risen 17% per annum over the last 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 10 years, Tiptree has lifted its dividend by approximately 12% 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
Has Tiptree got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? 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. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. Tiptree 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.