Yahoo Finance Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN) Looks Interesting, And It's About To Pay A Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 24th of December, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 12th of January.
Cerner's next dividend payment will be US$0.22 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.72 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Cerner stock has a trailing yield of around 1.1% on the current share price of $77.6. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Cerner's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Cerner can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
See our latest analysis for Cerner
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Fortunately Cerner's payout ratio is modest, at just 28% of profit. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. It distributed 31% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level for most companies.
It's positive to see that Cerner's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.
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 earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see Cerner's earnings per share have risen 11% per annum over the last 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. This will make it easier to fund future growth efforts and we think this is an attractive combination - plus the dividend can always be increased later.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Cerner has delivered 11% dividend growth per year on average over the past two years. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.
The Bottom Line
Is Cerner worth buying for its dividend? Cerner has been growing earnings at a rapid rate, and has a conservatively low payout ratio, implying that it is reinvesting heavily in its business; a sterling combination. Cerner looks solid on this analysis overall, and we'd definitely consider investigating it more closely.
In light of that, while Cerner has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Cerner you should be aware of.
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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