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Trinseo PLC's (NYSE:TSE) investors are due to receive a payment of $0.32 per share on 19th of January. This makes the dividend yield 5.7%, which will augment investor returns quite nicely.
See our latest analysis for Trinseo
Trinseo Might Find It Hard To Continue The Dividend
Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. Even though Trinseo isn't generating a profit, it is generating healthy free cash flows that easily cover the dividend. We generally think that cash flow is more important than accounting measures of profit, so we are fairly comfortable with the dividend at this level.
EPS has fallen by an average of 15.8% in the past, so this could continue over the next year. This means that the company will be unprofitable, but cash flows are more important when considering the dividend and as the current cash payout ratio is pretty healthy, we don't think there is too much reason to worry.
Trinseo's Dividend Has Lacked Consistency
Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. Due to this, we are a little bit cautious about the dividend consistency over a full economic cycle. Since 2016, the dividend has gone from $1.20 total annually to $1.28. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 1.1% a year over that time. It's encouraging to see some dividend growth, but the dividend has been cut at least once, and the size of the cut would eliminate most of the growth anyway, which makes this less attractive as an income investment.
Dividend Growth Potential Is Shaky
With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share is growing, which could point to a growing dividend in the future. Earnings per share has been sinking by 16% over the last five years. This steep decline can indicate that the business is going through a tough time, which could constrain its ability to pay a larger dividend each year in the future.
The Dividend Could Prove To Be Unreliable
Overall, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. In the past, the payments have been unstable, but over the short term the dividend could be reliable, with the company generating enough cash to cover it. We would be a touch cautious of relying on this stock primarily for the dividend income.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. For example, we've identified 4 warning signs for Trinseo (2 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.