Why It Might Not Make Sense To Buy Bridgemarq Real Estate Services Inc. (TSE:BRE) For Its Upcoming Dividend

Bridgemarq Real Estate Services Inc. (TSE:BRE) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 4 days time. You will need to purchase shares before the 30th of January to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of February.

Bridgemarq Real Estate Services's next dividend payment will be CA$0.11 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed CA$1.35 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Bridgemarq Real Estate Services has a trailing yield of 8.8% on the current share price of CA$15.27. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Bridgemarq Real Estate Services'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 Bridgemarq Real Estate Services

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Bridgemarq Real Estate Services distributed an unsustainably high 120% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. The company paid out 104% of its free cash flow over the last year, which we think is outside the ideal range for most businesses. Cash flows are usually much more volatile than earnings, so this could be a temporary effect - but we'd generally want look more closely here.

Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Bridgemarq Real Estate Services's payouts were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we would be concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.

Click here to see how much of its profit Bridgemarq Real Estate Services paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. It's encouraging to see Bridgemarq Real Estate Services has grown its earnings rapidly, up 64% a year for the past five years. Bridgemarq Real Estate Services's dividend was not well covered by earnings, although at least its earnings per share are growing quickly. Fast-growing businesses normally need to reinvest most of their earnings in order to maintain growth, so we'd suspect that either earnings growth will slow or the dividend may not be increased for a while.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Bridgemarq Real Estate Services's dividend payments are effectively flat on where they were ten years ago.

To Sum It Up

Is Bridgemarq Real Estate Services an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? While it's nice to see earnings per share growing, we're curious about how Bridgemarq Real Estate Services intends to continue growing, or maintain the dividend in a downturn given that it's paying out such a high percentage of its earnings and cashflow. It's not that we think Bridgemarq Real Estate Services is a bad company, but these characteristics don't generally lead to outstanding dividend performance.

Want to learn more about Bridgemarq Real Estate Services's dividend performance? Check out this visualisation of its historical revenue and earnings growth.

If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

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