We Wouldn’t Be Too Quick To Buy Evolution Petroleum Corporation (NYSEMKT:EPM) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend

It looks like Evolution Petroleum Corporation (NYSEMKT:EPM) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 13th of March to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of March.

Evolution Petroleum’s upcoming dividend is US$0.10 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.40 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Evolution Petroleum has a trailing yield of approximately 8.2% on its current stock price of $4.86. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Evolution Petroleum’s dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it’s growing.

See our latest analysis for Evolution Petroleum

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. Evolution Petroleum distributed an unsustainably high 129% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without extenuating circumstances, we’d consider the dividend at risk of a cut. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. It paid out an unsustainably high 222% of its free cash flow as dividends over the past 12 months, which is worrying. Unless there were something in the business we’re not grasping, this could signal a risk that the dividend may have to be cut in the future.

Evolution Petroleum does have a large net cash position on the balance sheet, which could fund large dividends for a time, if the company so chose. Still, smart investors know that it is better to assess dividends relative to the cash and profit generated by the business. Paying dividends out of cash on the balance sheet is not long-term sustainable.

Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Evolution Petroleum’s payouts were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we would be concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.

Click here to see the company’s payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

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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 earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. That’s why it’s comforting to see Evolution Petroleum’s earnings have been skyrocketing, up 27% per annum for the past five years. Earnings per share are increasing at a rapid rate, but the company is paying out more than we think is sustainable, based on current earnings. Companies that pay out more than they earned while growing rapidly, can find themselves short of cash in a few years when growth slows.

Many investors will assess a company’s dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Evolution Petroleum’s dividend payments are broadly unchanged compared to where they were six years ago.

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