Yahoo Finance Interested In McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD)’s Upcoming 0.5% Dividend? You Have 4 Days Left
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 30th of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 17th of September.
McDonald's's next dividend payment will be US$1.16 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$4.64 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that McDonald's has a trailing yield of 2.2% on the current share price of $214.66. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. As a result, readers should always check whether McDonald's has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
View our latest analysis for McDonald's
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. McDonald's is paying out an acceptable 58% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. 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. Dividends consumed 66% of the company's free cash flow last year, which is within a normal range for most dividend-paying organisations.
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?
Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. This is why it's a relief to see McDonald's earnings per share are up 6.6% per annum over the last five years. Decent historical earnings per share growth suggests McDonald's has been effectively growing value for shareholders. However, it's now paying out more than half its earnings as dividends. If management lifts the payout ratio further, we'd take this as a tacit signal that the company's growth prospects are slowing.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. McDonald's has delivered 8.8% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.
The Bottom Line
Is McDonald's worth buying for its dividend? Earnings per share have been growing modestly and McDonald's paid out a bit over half of its earnings and free cash flow last year. Overall, it's not a bad combination, but we feel that there are likely more attractive dividend prospects out there.
Curious what other investors think of McDonald's? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow .
We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
