Yahoo Finance CI Financial (TSE:CIX) Is Due To Pay A Dividend Of CA$0.18
CI Financial Corp. (TSE:CIX) has announced that it will pay a dividend of CA$0.18 per share on the 15th of July. Based on this payment, the dividend yield on the company's stock will be 5.1%, which is an attractive boost to shareholder returns.
While the dividend yield is important for income investors, it is also important to consider any large share price moves, as this will generally outweigh any gains from distributions. CI Financial's stock price has reduced by 31% in the last 3 months, which is not ideal for investors and can explain a sharp increase in the dividend yield.
Check out our latest analysis for CI Financial
CI Financial's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage
A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. However, prior to this announcement, CI Financial's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that most of what the business earns is being used to help it grow.
The next year is set to see EPS grow by 38.4%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 21%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.
Dividend Volatility
The company has a long dividend track record, but it doesn't look great with cuts in the past. Since 2012, the first annual payment was CA$0.90, compared to the most recent full-year payment of CA$0.72. This works out to be a decline of approximately 2.2% per year over that time. Declining dividends isn't generally what we look for as they can indicate that the company is running into some challenges.
Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve
With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. However, CI Financial has only grown its earnings per share at 2.1% per annum over the past five years. Earnings growth is slow, but on the plus side, the dividend payout ratio is low and dividends could grow faster than earnings, if the company decides to increase its payout ratio.
In Summary
Overall, we think CI Financial is a solid choice as a dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't raised this year. The payout ratio looks good, but unfortunately the company's dividend track record isn't stellar. The dividend looks okay, but there have been some issues in the past, so we would be a little bit cautious.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Case in point: We've spotted 5 warning signs for CI Financial (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about. Is CI Financial not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.
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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.
