Are Dividend Investors Getting More Than They Bargained For With Jiyuan Packaging Holdings Limited's (TPE:8488) Dividend?

Today we'll take a closer look at Jiyuan Packaging Holdings Limited (TPE:8488) 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. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.

With a goodly-sized dividend yield despite a relatively short payment history, investors might be wondering if Jiyuan Packaging Holdings is a new dividend aristocrat in the making. It sure looks interesting on these metrics - but there's always more to the story. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Jiyuan Packaging Holdings 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. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Jiyuan Packaging Holdings paid out 167% of its profit as dividends. A payout ratio above 100% is definitely an item of concern, unless there are some other circumstances that would justify it.

In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Jiyuan Packaging Holdings' cash payout ratio last year was 12%, which is quite low and suggests that the dividend was thoroughly covered by cash flow. It's good to see that while Jiyuan Packaging Holdings' dividends were not covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a cash perspective. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Jiyuan Packaging Holdings' latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

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. Jiyuan Packaging Holdings has been paying a dividend for the past four years. It has only been paying dividends for a few short years, and the dividend has already been cut at least once. This is one income stream we're not ready to live on. During the past four-year period, the first annual payment was NT$2.0 in 2017, compared to NT$0.5 last year. This works out to a decline of approximately 75% over that time.

We struggle to make a case for buying Jiyuan Packaging Holdings for its dividend, given that payments have shrunk over the past four years.

Dividend Growth Potential

Given that dividend payments have been shrinking like a glacier in a warming world, we need to check if there are some bright spots on the horizon. Over the past five years, it looks as though Jiyuan Packaging Holdings' EPS have declined at around 12% a year. With this kind of significant decline, we always wonder what has changed in the business. Dividends are about stability, and Jiyuan Packaging Holdings' earnings per share, which support the dividend, have been anything but stable.

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 a bit uncomfortable with its high payout ratio, although at least the dividend was covered by free cash flow. Earnings per share have been falling, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. From a dividend perspective, this is a cause for concern. Overall, Jiyuan Packaging Holdings falls short in several key areas here. Unless the investor has strong grounds for an alternative conclusion, we find it hard to get interested in a dividend stock with these characteristics.

Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. Just as an example, we've come accross 5 warning signs for Jiyuan Packaging Holdings you should be aware of, and 2 of them make us uncomfortable.

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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