Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that Melexis NV (EBR:MELE) is about to go ex-dividend in just 3 days. Investors can purchase shares before the 22nd of October in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 24th of October.

Melexis's next dividend payment will be €0.9 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of €2.2 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Melexis has a trailing yield of 3.7% on the current stock price of €59.95. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. As a result, readers should always check whether Melexis has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

Check out our latest analysis for Melexis

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Last year Melexis paid out 101% of its profits as dividends to shareholders, suggesting the dividend is not well covered by earnings. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Melexis paid out more free cash flow than it generated - 194%, to be precise - last year, which we think is concerningly high. It's hard to consistently pay out more cash than you generate without either borrowing or using company cash, so we'd wonder how the company justifies this payout level.

Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Melexis'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.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Melexis, with earnings per share up 9.8% on average over the last five years. Earnings per share have been growing steadily, although a payout ratio this high suggests future growth is likely to slow, and the dividend may also be at risk of a cut if business enters a downturn.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the past ten years, Melexis has increased its dividend at approximately 14% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

To Sum It Up

Should investors buy Melexis for the upcoming dividend? Melexis is paying out an uncomfortably high percentage of both earnings and cash flow as dividends, although at least earnings per share are growing somewhat. It's not the most attractive proposition from a dividend perspective, and we'd probably give this one a miss for now.

Curious what other investors think of Melexis? 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.