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Welspun Enterprises Limited (NSE:WELENT) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 25th of July to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 1st of January.

Welspun Enterprises's next dividend payment will be ₹2.00 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of ₹2.00 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Welspun Enterprises stock has a trailing yield of around 1.8% on the current share price of ₹105.1. 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 Welspun Enterprises

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Welspun Enterprises paid out just 23% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.

Click here to see how much of its profit Welspun Enterprises paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. It's encouraging to see Welspun Enterprises has grown its earnings rapidly, up 68% a year for the past five years.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, Welspun Enterprises has lifted its dividend by approximately 7.2% a year on average. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.

Final Takeaway

Is Welspun Enterprises an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? It's great that Welspun Enterprises is growing earnings per share while simultaneously paying out a low percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. It's disappointing to see the dividend has been cut at least once in the past, but as things stand now, the low payout ratio suggests a conservative approach to dividends, which we like. There's a lot to like about Welspun Enterprises, and we would prioritise taking a closer look at it.