Sienna Senior Living's (TSE:SIA) Dividend Will Be CA$0.078

Sienna Senior Living Inc. (TSE:SIA) has announced that it will pay a dividend of CA$0.078 per share on the 13th of August. Based on this payment, the dividend yield on the company's stock will be 5.7%, which is an attractive boost to shareholder returns.

See our latest analysis for Sienna Senior Living

Sienna Senior Living's Distributions May Be Difficult To Sustain

We like to see robust dividend yields, but that doesn't matter if the payment isn't sustainable. Sienna Senior Living is unprofitable despite paying a dividend, and it is paying out 138% of its free cash flow. This is quite a strong warning sign that the dividend may not be sustainable.

Looking forward, earnings per share could 39.8% over the next year if the trend of the last few years can't be broken. This will push the company into unprofitability, which means the managers will have to choose between suspending the dividend, or paying it out of cash reserves.

Sienna Senior Living Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. The dividend has gone from CA$0.85 in 2011 to the most recent annual payment of CA$0.94. Dividend payments have grown at less than 1% a year over this period. Although we can't deny that the dividend has been remarkably stable in the past, the growth has been pretty muted.

Dividend Growth Potential Is Shaky

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. However, things aren't all that rosy. Sienna Senior Living's earnings per share has shrunk at 40% a year over the past five years. Dividend payments are likely to come under some pressure unless EPS can pull out of the nosedive it is in.

The Dividend Could Prove To Be Unreliable

In summary, while it's good to see that the dividend hasn't been cut, we are a bit cautious about Sienna Senior Living's payments, as there could be some issues with sustaining them into the future. We can't deny that the payments have been very stable, but we are a little bit worried about the very high payout ratio. 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. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. To that end, Sienna Senior Living has 4 warning signs (and 2 which are a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of strong dividend payers.

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