Lindsay Corporation (NYSE:LNN) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. You will need to purchase shares before the 13th of May to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of May.

Lindsay's next dividend payment will be US$0.33 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.32 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Lindsay stock has a trailing yield of around 0.8% on the current share price of $171.33. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Lindsay's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether Lindsay has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

Check out our latest analysis for Lindsay

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. Fortunately Lindsay's payout ratio is modest, at just 32% of profit. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. Over the last year it paid out 52% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range 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. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see Lindsay's earnings per share have risen 13% per annum over the last five years. Lindsay has an average payout ratio which suggests a balance between growing earnings and rewarding shareholders. Given the quick rate of earnings per share growth and current level of payout, there may be a chance of further dividend increases in the future.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Lindsay has delivered an average of 15% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.

Final Takeaway

Is Lindsay an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Earnings per share have grown at a nice rate in recent times and over the last year, Lindsay paid out less than half its earnings and a bit over half its free cash flow. Overall we think this is an attractive combination and worthy of further research.

Wondering what the future holds for Lindsay? See what the four analysts we track 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.

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. 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.

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