Yahoo Finance Why It Might Not Make Sense To Buy Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) For Its Upcoming Dividend
It looks like Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 16th of December will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of December.
Hillenbrand's next dividend payment will be US$0.21 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.85 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Hillenbrand has a trailing yield of 2.2% on the current stock price of $38.68. 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.
View our latest analysis for Hillenbrand
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Hillenbrand'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. It paid out 20% of its free cash flow as dividends last year, which is conservatively low.
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. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. Hillenbrand reported a loss last year, and the general trend suggests its earnings have also been declining in recent years, making us wonder if the dividend is at risk.
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, Hillenbrand has increased its dividend at approximately 1.4% a year on average.
Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Hillenbrand'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 Hillenbrand? First, it's not great to see the company paying a dividend despite being loss-making over the last year. On the plus side, the dividend was covered by free cash flow." Bottom line: Hillenbrand has some unfortunate characteristics that we think could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for dividend investors.
Although, if you're still interested in Hillenbrand and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Hillenbrand (of which 1 can't be ignored!) you should know about.
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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