Yahoo Finance There's A Lot To Like About Cerner's (NASDAQ:CERN) Upcoming US$0.18 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 4 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 24th of September will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 13th of October.
Cerner's next dividend payment will be US$0.18 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.72 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Cerner has a trailing yield of approximately 1.0% on its current stock price of $69.85. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Cerner's dividend is reliable and sustainable. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.
View 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. Cerner paid out a comfortable 43% of its profit last year. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Cerner generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 34% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio.
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?
Stocks with flat earnings can still be attractive dividend payers, but it is important to be more conservative with your approach and demand a greater margin for safety when it comes to dividend sustainability. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. It's not encouraging to see that Cerner's earnings are effectively flat over the past five years. Better than seeing them fall off a cliff, for sure, but the best dividend stocks grow their earnings meaningfully over the long run. Recent growth has not been impressive. Yet there are several ways to grow the dividend, and one of them is simply that the company may choose to pay out more of its earnings as dividends.
Unfortunately Cerner has only been paying a dividend for a year or so, so there's not much of a history to draw insight from.
Final Takeaway
Should investors buy Cerner for the upcoming dividend? The company has barely grown earnings per share over this time, but at least it's paying out a decently low percentage of its earnings and cashflow as dividends. This could suggest management is reinvesting in future growth opportunities. We would prefer to see earnings growing faster, but the best dividend stocks over the long term typically combine strong earnings per share growth with a low payout ratio, and Cerner is halfway there. There's a lot to like about Cerner, and we would prioritise taking a closer look at it.
So while Cerner looks good from a dividend perspective, it's always worthwhile being up to date with the risks involved in this stock. For example, we've found 1 warning sign for Cerner that we recommend you consider before investing in the business.
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.
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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