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Readers hoping to buy EnerSys (NYSE:ENS) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. You will need to purchase shares before the 11th of March to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 26th of March.
EnerSys's next dividend payment will be US$0.17 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.70 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that EnerSys has a trailing yield of 0.8% on the current share price of $89.32. 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 EnerSys can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for EnerSys
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. EnerSys paid out a comfortable 28% of its profit last year. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. The good news is it paid out just 12% of its free cash flow in the last year.
It's positive to see that EnerSys's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. EnerSys's earnings per share have fallen at approximately 8.5% a year over the previous five years. Ultimately, when earnings per share decline, the size of the pie from which dividends can be paid, shrinks.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the past eight years, EnerSys has increased its dividend at approximately 4.3% a year on average.
The Bottom Line
Has EnerSys got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? Earnings per share are down meaningfully, although at least the company is paying out a low and conservative percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. It's definitely not great to see earnings falling, but at least there may be some buffer before the dividend needs to be cut. While it does have some good things going for it, we're a bit ambivalent and it would take more to convince us of EnerSys's dividend merits.