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Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that Tian Teck Land Limited (HKG:266) is about to go ex-dividend in just 2 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 12th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 10th of October.
Tian Teck Land's upcoming dividend is HK$0.22 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of HK$0.44 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Tian Teck Land stock has a trailing yield of around 5.4% on the current share price of HK$8.2. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Tian Teck Land can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for Tian Teck Land
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. An unusually high payout ratio of 284% 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 51% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range for most companies.
It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Tian Teck Land fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.
Click here to see how much of its profit Tian Teck Land paid out over the last 12 months.
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. Tian Teck Land's earnings per share have plummeted approximately 37% a year over the previous five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Tian Teck Land has delivered an average of 13% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 8 years of dividend payments. 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. Tian Teck Land is already paying out a high percentage of its income, so without earnings growth, we're doubtful of whether this dividend will grow much in the future.