Yahoo Finance Dividend Investors: Don't Be Too Quick To Buy Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) For Its Upcoming Dividend
Readers hoping to buy Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. The ex-dividend date is important as the process of settlement involves two full business days. So if you miss that date, you would not show up on the company's books on the record date. This means that investors who purchase Cardinal Health's shares on or after the 30th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 15th of October.
The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.50 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$1.98 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Cardinal Health has a trailing yield of 3.0% on the current share price of $66.05. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
See our latest analysis for Cardinal Health
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. Cardinal Health's dividend is not well covered by earnings, as the company lost money last year. This is not a sustainable state of affairs, so it would be worth investigating if earnings are expected to recover. Given that the company reported a loss last year, we now need to see if it generated enough free cash flow to fund the dividend. If cash earnings don't cover the dividend, the company would have to pay dividends out of cash in the bank, or by borrowing money, neither of which is long-term sustainable. The good news is it paid out just 20% of its free cash flow in the last year.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. Cardinal Health was unprofitable last year and, unfortunately, the general trend suggests its earnings have been in decline over the last five years, making us wonder if the dividend is sustainable at all.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the past 10 years, Cardinal Health has increased its dividend at approximately 8.7% a year on average.
Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Cardinal Health's financial health, by checking our visualisation of its financial health, here.
To Sum It Up
From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Cardinal Health? It's hard to get used to Cardinal Health paying a dividend despite reporting a loss over the past year. At least the dividend was covered by free cash flow, however. It's not that we think Cardinal Health is a bad company, but these characteristics don't generally lead to outstanding dividend performance.
Having said that, if you're looking at this stock without much concern for the dividend, you should still be familiar of the risks involved with Cardinal Health. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Cardinal Health that you should be aware of before investing in their shares.
Generally, we wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see. Here's a curated list of interesting stocks that are strong dividend payers.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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