EQT (NYSE:EQT) Is Due To Pay A Dividend Of $0.1575

EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) will pay a dividend of $0.1575 on the 2nd of December. This means the annual payment will be 1.7% of the current stock price, which is lower than the industry average.

View our latest analysis for EQT

EQT's Payment Could Potentially Have Solid Earnings Coverage

It would be nice for the yield to be higher, but we should also check if higher levels of dividend payment would be sustainable. However, prior to this announcement, EQT was quite comfortably covering its dividend with earnings and it was paying more than 75% of its free cash flow to shareholders. The business is returning a large chunk of its cash to shareholders, which means it is not being used to grow the business.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 131.8% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 28%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.

Dividend Volatility

The company has a long dividend track record, but it doesn't look great with cuts in the past. The annual payment during the last 10 years was $0.12 in 2014, and the most recent fiscal year payment was $0.63. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 18% a year over that time. It is great to see strong growth in the dividend payments, but cuts are concerning as it may indicate the payout policy is too ambitious.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. EQT has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 50% per annum. Earnings have been growing rapidly, and with a low payout ratio we think that the company could turn out to be a great dividend stock.

We should note that EQT has issued stock equal to 44% of shares outstanding. Regularly doing this can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created.

In Summary

Overall, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. The company hasn't been paying a very consistent dividend over time, despite only paying out a small portion of earnings. We would be a touch cautious of relying on this stock primarily for the dividend income.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For example, we've picked out 3 warning signs for EQT that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.