Interested In GATX's (NYSE:GATX) Upcoming US$0.50 Dividend? You Have Four Days Left
GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. You can purchase shares before the 25th of February in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 31st of March.
GATX's next dividend payment will be US$0.50 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$2.00 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, GATX stock has a trailing yield of around 2.0% on the current share price of $99.42. 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 GATX can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for GATX
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. That's why it's good to see GATX paying out a modest 45% of its earnings. GATX paid a dividend despite reporting negative free cash flow last year. That's typically a bad combination and - if this were more than a one-off - not sustainable.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. So we're not too excited that GATX's earnings are down 2.1% a year over 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. In the past 10 years, GATX has increased its dividend at approximately 6.0% a year on average.
To Sum It Up
Should investors buy GATX for the upcoming dividend? GATX's earnings per share are down over the past five years, although it has the cushion of a low payout ratio, which would suggest a cut to the dividend is relatively unlikely. GATX ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention.
With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. Be aware that GATX is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is significant...
We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting 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.
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