Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) Is Paying Out A Larger Dividend Than Last Year

The board of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) has announced that it will be paying its dividend of $0.20 on the 15th of June, an increased payment from last year's comparable dividend. Based on this payment, the dividend yield for the company will be 2.1%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Mosaic

Mosaic's Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. However, Mosaic's earnings easily cover the dividend. This means that most of what the business earns is being used to help it grow.

EPS is set to fall by 51.8% over the next 12 months. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we believe the payout ratio could be 18%, which we are pretty comfortable with and we think is feasible on an earnings basis.

Dividend Volatility

Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. Since 2013, the dividend has gone from $1.00 total annually to $0.80. Doing the maths, this is a decline of about 2.2% per year. Generally, we don't like to see a dividend that has been declining over time as this can degrade shareholders' returns and indicate that the company may be running into problems.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Growing earnings per share could be a mitigating factor when considering the past fluctuations in the dividend. Mosaic has impressed us by growing EPS at 59% per year over the past five years. 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.

Mosaic Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, we think this could be an attractive income stock, and it is only getting better by paying a higher dividend this year. The distributions are easily covered by earnings, and there is plenty of cash being generated as well. However, it is worth noting that the earnings are expected to fall over the next year, which may not change the long term outlook, but could affect the dividend payment in the next 12 months. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Mosaic (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) you should know about. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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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.