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Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Investors can purchase shares before the 28th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 22nd of September.
Assurant's upcoming dividend is US$0.63 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$2.52 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Assurant stock has a trailing yield of around 2.1% on the current share price of $120.64. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Assurant
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. Assurant paid out a comfortable 39% of its profit last year.
When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. That explains why we're not overly excited about Assurant's flat earnings over the past five years. We'd take that over an earnings decline any day, but in the long run, the best dividend stocks all grow their earnings per share.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Assurant has delivered 15% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years.
Final Takeaway
Is Assurant worth buying for its dividend? Assurant's earnings per share have not grown at all in recent years, although we like that it is paying out a low percentage of its earnings. It doesn't appear an outstanding opportunity, but could be worth a closer look.
If you want to look further into Assurant, it's worth knowing the risks this business faces. For example, we've found 1 warning sign for Assurant that we recommend you consider before investing in the business.