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Readers hoping to buy Sonata Software Limited (NSE:SONATSOFTW) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. You will need to purchase shares before the 7th of November to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 29th of November.
Sonata Software's upcoming dividend is ₹5.8 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of ₹12.8 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Sonata Software has a trailing yield of approximately 4.1% on its current stock price of ₹311.5. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Sonata Software's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Sonata Software can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
See our latest analysis for Sonata Software
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. Sonata Software is paying out an acceptable 53% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. 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 more than three-quarters (78%) of its free cash flow generated, which is fairly high and may be starting to limit reinvestment in the business.
It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.
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. It's encouraging to see Sonata Software has grown its earnings rapidly, up 28% a year for the past five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last ten years, Sonata Software has lifted its dividend by approximately 38% a year on average. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.