We Wouldn't Be Too Quick To Buy Avnet, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVT) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend

Avnet, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVT) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 8th of September will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 23rd of September.

Avnet's upcoming dividend is US$0.21 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.84 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Avnet has a trailing yield of approximately 2.9% on its current stock price of $28.93. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Avnet's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

Check out our latest analysis for Avnet

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Avnet'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. With the recent loss, it's important to check if the business generated enough cash to pay its dividend. If Avnet 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. What's good is that dividends were well covered by free cash flow, with the company paying out 13% of its cash flow last year.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. Avnet was unprofitable last year and, unfortunately, the general trend suggests its earnings have been in decline over the last five years, making us wonder if the dividend is sustainable at all.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, seven years ago, Avnet has lifted its dividend by approximately 4.9% a year on average.

Get our latest analysis on Avnet's balance sheet health here.

To Sum It Up

Should investors buy Avnet for the upcoming dividend? We're a bit uncomfortable with it paying a dividend while being loss-making. However, we note that the dividend was covered by cash flow. Overall it doesn't look like the most suitable dividend stock for a long-term buy and hold investor.

Although, if you're still interested in Avnet and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. To help with this, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Avnet that you should be aware of before investing in their shares.

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.

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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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