Yahoo Finance Don't Buy Hercules Site Services Plc (LON:HERC) For Its Next Dividend Without Doing These Checks
Hercules Site Services Plc (LON:HERC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. This means that investors who purchase Hercules Site Services' shares on or after the 22nd of February will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 22nd of March.
The company's next dividend payment will be UK£0.0112 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK£0.017 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Hercules Site Services stock has a trailing yield of around 5.1% on the current share price of UK£0.3375. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. As a result, readers should always check whether Hercules Site Services has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
See our latest analysis for Hercules Site Services
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Hercules Site Services distributed an unsustainably high 136% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Luckily it paid out just 16% of its free cash flow last year.
It's good to see that while Hercules Site Services's dividends were not covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a cash perspective. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Very few companies are able to sustainably pay dividends larger than their reported earnings.
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. Hercules Site Services's earnings per share have plummeted approximately 80% a year over the previous five years.
We'd also point out that Hercules Site Services issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. It's hard to grow dividends per share when a company keeps creating new shares.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past two years, Hercules Site Services has increased its dividend at approximately 0.6% a year on average.
The Bottom Line
Should investors buy Hercules Site Services for the upcoming dividend? It's not a great combination to see a company with earnings in decline and paying out 136% of its profits, which could imply the dividend may be at risk of being cut in the future. However, the cash payout ratio was much lower - good news from a dividend perspective - which makes us wonder why there is such a mis-match between income and cashflow. It's not the most attractive proposition from a dividend perspective, and we'd probably give this one a miss for now.
With that in mind though, if the poor dividend characteristics of Hercules Site Services don't faze you, it's worth being mindful of the risks involved with this business. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Hercules Site Services (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.
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.
