Decisive Dividend (CVE:DE) Will Pay A Dividend Of CA$0.035

The board of Decisive Dividend Corporation (CVE:DE) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 15th of June, with investors receiving CA$0.035 per share. The dividend yield will be 6.4% based on this payment which is still above the industry average.

View our latest analysis for Decisive Dividend

Decisive Dividend's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Decisive Dividend's dividend was making up a very large proportion of earnings and perhaps more concerning was that it was 122% 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 is forecast to rise by 21.5% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 91%, which is on the higher side, but certainly still feasible.

Decisive Dividend's Dividend Has Lacked Consistency

Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. This makes us cautious about the consistency of the dividend over a full economic cycle. The dividend has gone from an annual total of CA$0.24 in 2015 to the most recent total annual payment of CA$0.42. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7.2% 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.

Dividend Growth Could Be Constrained

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. Decisive Dividend has impressed us by growing EPS 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 38% 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, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. While we generally think the level of distributions are a bit high, we wouldn't rule it out as becoming a good dividend payer in the future as its earnings are growing healthily. This company is not in the top tier of income providing stocks.

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. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 4 warning signs for Decisive Dividend that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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