Yahoo Finance Here's Why We're Wary Of Buying Cardinal Health, Inc.'s (NYSE:CAH) For Its Upcoming Dividend
Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 4 days time. You can purchase shares before the 31st of March in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 15th of April.
Cardinal Health's upcoming dividend is US$0.48 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$1.92 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Cardinal Health has a trailing yield of 4.6% on the current stock price of $42.25. 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Cardinal Health
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. Cardinal Health reported a loss after tax last year, which means it's paying a dividend despite being unprofitable. While this might be a one-off event, this is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term. 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 Cardinal Health didn't generate enough cash to pay the dividend, then it must have either paid from cash in the bank or by borrowing money, neither of which is sustainable in the long term. It distributed 34% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level for most companies.
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. Cardinal Health 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.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Cardinal Health has delivered an average of 11% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past ten years of dividend payments.
We update our analysis on Cardinal Health every 24 hours, so you can always get the latest insights on its financial health, here.
The Bottom Line
Is Cardinal Health worth buying for its dividend? 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: Cardinal Health has some unfortunate characteristics that we think could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for dividend investors.
Having said that, if you're looking at this stock without much concern for the dividend, you should still be familiar of the risks involved with Cardinal Health. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Cardinal Health (including 1 which is significant).
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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.
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. Thank you for reading.
