Decisive Dividend (CVE:DE) Is Paying Out A Dividend Of CA$0.03

The board of Decisive Dividend Corporation (CVE:DE) has announced that it will pay a dividend of CA$0.03 per share on the 15th of March. The dividend yield will be 7.0% based on this payment which is still above the industry average.

View our latest analysis for Decisive Dividend

Decisive Dividend Doesn't Earn Enough To Cover Its Payments

If the payments aren't sustainable, a high yield for a few years won't matter that much. At the time of the last dividend payment, Decisive Dividend was paying out a very large proportion of what it was earning and 111% of cash flows. Paying out such a high proportion of cash flows certainly exposes the company to cutting the dividend if cash flows were to reduce.

Earnings per share could rise by 13.8% over the next year if things go the same way as they have for the last few years. However, if the dividend continues along recent trends, it could start putting pressure on the balance sheet with the payout ratio reaching 99% over the next year.

Decisive Dividend's Dividend Has Lacked Consistency

Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. If the company cuts once, it definitely isn't argument against the possibility of it cutting in the future. Since 2015, the annual payment back then was CA$0.24, compared to the most recent full-year payment of CA$0.36. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.2% a year over that time. A reasonable rate of dividend growth is good to see, but we're wary that the dividend history is not as solid as we'd like, having been cut at least once.

Decisive Dividend Might Find It Hard To Grow Its Dividend

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share is growing, which could point to a growing dividend in the future. We are encouraged to see that Decisive Dividend has grown earnings per share at 14% per year over the past five years. The payout ratio is very much on the higher end, which could mean that the growth rate will slow down in the future, and that could flow through to the dividend as well.

We should note that Decisive Dividend has issued stock equal to 23% of shares outstanding. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective.

The Dividend Could Prove To Be Unreliable

Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. In general, the distributions are a little bit higher than we would like, but we can't ignore the fact the quickly growing earnings gives this stock great potential in the future. We don't think Decisive Dividend is a great stock to add to your portfolio if income is your focus.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. To that end, Decisive Dividend has 5 warning signs (and 1 which shouldn't be ignored) we think you should know about. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

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