There's A Lot To Like About Prudential plc's (LON:PRU) Upcoming 1.2% Dividend
It looks like Prudential plc (LON:PRU) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 3 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 22nd of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 26th of September.
Prudential's next dividend payment will be UK£0.16 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed UK£0.49 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Prudential has a trailing yield of 3.5% on the current share price of £14.155. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Prudential's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Prudential can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for Prudential
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. That's why it's good to see Prudential paying out a modest 49% of its earnings.
When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. For this reason, we're glad to see Prudential's earnings per share have risen 14% per annum over the last five years.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Prudential has delivered 10% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.
The Bottom Line
Is Prudential worth buying for its dividend? When companies are growing rapidly and retaining a majority of the profits within the business, it's usually a sign that reinvesting earnings creates more value than paying dividends to shareholders. This is one of the most attractive investment combinations under this analysis, as it can create substantial value for investors over the long run. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating Prudential more closely.
Ever wonder what the future holds for Prudential? See what the ten analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow
We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
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. Thank you for reading.
