Enerplus Corporation (TSE:ERF) Is Yielding 2.1% - But Is It A Buy?

Today we'll take a closer look at Enerplus Corporation (TSE:ERF) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter.

A 2.1% yield is nothing to get excited about, but investors probably think the long payment history suggests Enerplus has some staying power. During the year, the company also conducted a buyback equivalent to around 2.2% of its market capitalisation. Remember though, due to the recent spike in its share price, Enerplus's yield will look lower, even though the market may now be factoring in an improvement in its long-term prospects. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Enerplus for its dividend, and we'll go through these below.

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Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Although Enerplus pays a dividend, it was loss-making during the past year. When a company is loss-making, we next need to check to see if its cash flows can support the dividend.

Enerplus' cash payout ratio last year was 18%, which is quite low and suggests that the dividend was thoroughly covered by cash flow.

We update our data on Enerplus every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Enerplus' dividend payments. While its dividends have not been hugely volatile, its most recent dividend is still meaningfully below where it was 10 years ago. During the past 10-year period, the first annual payment was CA$2.2 in 2011, compared to CA$0.1 last year. The dividend has fallen 94% over that period.

We struggle to make a case for buying Enerplus for its dividend, given that payments have shrunk over the past 10 years.

Dividend Growth Potential

Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see Enerplus has grown its earnings per share at 19% per annum over the past five years. A company paying out less than a quarter of its earnings as dividends, and growing earnings at more than 10% per annum, looks to be right in the cusp of its growth phase. At the right price, we might be interested.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. We're not keen on the fact that Enerplus paid dividends despite reporting a loss over the past year, although fortunately its dividend was covered by cash flow. That said, we were glad to see it growing earnings and paying a fairly consistent dividend. Overall we think Enerplus is an interesting dividend stock, although it could be better.

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. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 3 warning signs for Enerplus that investors need to be conscious of moving forward.

If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%.

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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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