Why It Might Not Make Sense To Buy TESSCO Technologies Incorporated (NASDAQ:TESS) For Its Upcoming Dividend
TESSCO Technologies Incorporated (NASDAQ:TESS) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 6th of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 21st of August.
TESSCO Technologies's next dividend payment will be US$0.20 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.80 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, TESSCO Technologies has a trailing yield of 5.5% on the current stock price of $14.6. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. As a result, readers should always check whether TESSCO Technologies has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
View our latest analysis for TESSCO Technologies
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. An unusually high payout ratio of 357% of its profit suggests something is happening other than the usual distribution of profits to shareholders. 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. Over the last year, it paid out dividends equivalent to 219% of what it generated in free cash flow, a disturbingly high percentage. Our definition of free cash flow excludes cash generated from asset sales, so since TESSCO Technologies is paying out such a high percentage of its cash flow, it might be worth seeing if it sold assets or had similar events that might have led to such a high dividend payment.
Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given TESSCO Technologies's payments were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we are concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.
Click here to see how much of its profit TESSCO Technologies paid out over the last 12 months.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with falling earnings are riskier for dividend shareholders. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. TESSCO Technologies's earnings have collapsed faster than Wile E Coyote's schemes to trap the Road Runner; down a tremendous 35% a year over the past five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. TESSCO Technologies has delivered 12% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. That's intriguing, but the combination of growing dividends despite declining earnings can typically only be achieved by paying out a larger percentage of profits. TESSCO Technologies is already paying out 357% of its profits, and with shrinking earnings we think it's unlikely that this dividend will grow quickly in the future.
To Sum It Up
Is TESSCO Technologies worth buying for its dividend? Not only are earnings per share declining, but TESSCO Technologies is paying out an uncomfortably high percentage of both its earnings and cashflow to shareholders as dividends. This is a clearly suboptimal combination that usually suggests the dividend is at risk of being cut. If not now, then perhaps in the future. It's not an attractive combination from a dividend perspective, and we're inclined to pass on this one for the time being.
Want to learn more about TESSCO Technologies? Here's a visualisation of its historical rate of revenue and earnings growth.
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.
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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.
