Extendicare Inc. (TSE:EXE) Stock Goes Ex-Dividend In Just Four Days
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Extendicare Inc. (TSE:EXE) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 29th of April to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 17th of May.
Extendicare's next dividend payment will be CA$0.04 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of CA$0.48 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Extendicare has a trailing yield of approximately 6.3% on its current stock price of CA$7.62. 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 Extendicare can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
See our latest analysis for Extendicare
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. Last year Extendicare paid out 101% of its profits as dividends to shareholders, suggesting the dividend is not well covered by earnings. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. Fortunately, it paid out only 47% of its free cash flow in the past year.
It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Extendicare fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.
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. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. For this reason, we're glad to see Extendicare's earnings per share have risen 12% 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. Extendicare's dividend payments per share have declined at 5.4% per year on average over the past 10 years, which is uninspiring. It's unusual to see earnings per share increasing at the same time as dividends per share have been in decline. We'd hope it's because the company is reinvesting heavily in its business, but it could also suggest business is lumpy.
Final Takeaway
Should investors buy Extendicare for the upcoming dividend? Earnings per share have been rising nicely although, even though its cashflow payout ratio is low, we question why Extendicare is paying out so much of its profit. Overall, it's not a bad combination, but we feel that there are likely more attractive dividend prospects out there.
On that note, you'll want to research what risks Extendicare is facing. For example, we've found 4 warning signs for Extendicare (3 shouldn't be ignored!) that deserve your attention before investing in the shares.
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
