American Software's (NASDAQ:AMSW.A) Dividend Will Be US$0.11

American Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSW.A) will pay a dividend of US$0.11 on the 18th of February. Based on this payment, the dividend yield on the company's stock will be 2.0%, which is an attractive boost to shareholder returns.

Check out our latest analysis for American Software

American Software Doesn't Earn Enough To Cover Its Payments

If the payments aren't sustainable, a high yield for a few years won't matter that much. Prior to this announcement, the company was paying out 125% of what it was earning and 85% of cash flows. The company could be more focused on returning cash to shareholders, but this could indicate that growth opportunities are few and far between.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 17.8% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 157%, which could put the dividend in jeopardy if the company's earnings don't improve.

American Software Has A Solid Track Record

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. The dividend has gone from US$0.36 in 2012 to the most recent annual payment of US$0.44. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 2.0% a year over that time. While the consistency in the dividend payments is impressive, we think the relatively slow rate of growth is less attractive.

American Software May Have Challenges Growing The Dividend

The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. American Software has impressed us by growing EPS at 5.7% per year over the past five years. However, the company isn't reinvesting a lot back into the business, so we would expect the growth rate to slow down somewhat in the future.

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 American Software's payments, as there could be some issues with sustaining them into the future. Although they have been consistent in the past, we think the payments are a little high to be sustained. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. For instance, we've picked out 4 warning signs for American Software that investors should take into consideration. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of strong dividend payers.

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