Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX) Is About To Go Ex-Dividend, And It Pays A 0.8% Yield
It looks like Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 12th of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 27th of August.
Emerald Expositions Events's next dividend payment will be US$0.075 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.30 per share. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Emerald Expositions Events has a trailing yield of approximately 3.2% on its current stock price of $9.41. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Emerald Expositions Events's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether Emerald Expositions Events has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
View our latest analysis for Emerald Expositions Events
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. Emerald Expositions Events lost money last year, so the fact that it's paying a dividend is certainly disconcerting. There might be a good reason for this, but we'd want to look into it further before getting comfortable. Considering the lack of profitability, we also need to check if the company generated enough cash flow to cover the dividend payment. If cash earnings don't cover the dividend, the company would have to pay dividends out of cash in the bank, or by borrowing money, neither of which is long-term sustainable. It paid out 24% of its free cash flow as dividends last year, which is conservatively low.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
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 decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Emerald Expositions Events reported a loss last year, but at least the general trend suggests its income has been improving over the past five years. Even so, an unprofitable company whose business does not quickly recover is usually not a good candidate for dividend investors.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the last 2 years, Emerald Expositions Events has lifted its dividend by approximately 3.5% 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.
Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Emerald Expositions Events's financial health, by checking our visualisation of its financial health, here.
To Sum It Up
Should investors buy Emerald Expositions Events for the upcoming dividend? It's hard to get used to Emerald Expositions Events paying a dividend despite reporting a loss over the past year. At least the dividend was covered by free cash flow, however. Overall, it's not a bad combination, but we feel that there are likely more attractive dividend prospects out there.
Wondering what the future holds for Emerald Expositions Events? See what the six analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
