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Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Persimmon Plc (LON:PSN) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 27th of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 14th of September.
Persimmon's next dividend payment will be UK£0.40 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK£0.80 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Persimmon stock has a trailing yield of around 3.0% on the current share price of £26.77. 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 check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Persimmon
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. Persimmon is paying out just 19% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events.
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. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. Fortunately for readers, Persimmon's earnings per share have been growing at 12% a year for the past five years. Earnings per share are growing rapidly and the company is keeping more than half of its earnings within the business; an attractive combination which could suggest the company is focused on reinvesting to grow earnings further. Fast-growing businesses that are reinvesting heavily are enticing from a dividend perspective, especially since they can often increase the payout ratio later.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Persimmon has delivered 30% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.
Final Takeaway
Should investors buy Persimmon for the upcoming dividend? Companies like Persimmon that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings, are usually reinvesting heavily in their business. This strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. In summary, Persimmon appears to have some promise as a dividend stock, and we'd suggest taking a closer look at it.