Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) Looks Interesting, And It's About To Pay A Dividend
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 13th of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 30th of August.
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding's next dividend payment will be US$0.23 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.92 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding has a trailing yield of approximately 1.3% on its current stock price of $70.46. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. As a result, readers should always check whether Booz Allen Hamilton Holding has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
View our latest analysis for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. That's why it's good to see Booz Allen Hamilton Holding paying out a modest 28% of its earnings. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Booz Allen Hamilton Holding generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. It distributed 25% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level for most companies.
It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.
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. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. Fortunately for readers, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding's earnings per share have been growing at 13% a year for the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing rapidly and the company is retaining a majority of its earnings within the business. Fast-growing businesses that are reinvesting heavily are enticing from a dividend perspective, especially since they can often increase the payout ratio later.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Booz Allen Hamilton Holding has delivered an average of 12% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 8 years of dividend payments. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.
The Bottom Line
Has Booz Allen Hamilton Holding got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? Booz Allen Hamilton Holding has grown its earnings per share while simultaneously reinvesting in the business. Unfortunately it's cut the dividend at least once in the past eight years, but the conservative payout ratio makes the current dividend look sustainable. Overall we think this is an attractive combination and worthy of further research.
Curious what other investors think of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow .
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising 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.
