It Might Not Be A Great Idea To Buy Xperi Corporation (NASDAQ:XPER) For Its Next Dividend
Xperi Corporation (NASDAQ:XPER) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 26th of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 17th of September.
Xperi's upcoming dividend is US$0.20 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.80 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Xperi stock has a trailing yield of around 4.1% on the current share price of $19.75. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
See our latest analysis for Xperi
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. Xperi paid out 130% of profit in the past year, which we think is typically not sustainable unless there are mitigating characteristics such as unusually strong cash flow or a large cash balance. 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. Fortunately, it paid out only 26% of its free cash flow in the past year.
It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Xperi fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. Xperi's earnings per share have plummeted approximately 52% a year over the previous five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last 7 years, Xperi has lifted its dividend by approximately 10% a year on average. That's intriguing, but the combination of growing dividends despite declining earnings can typically only be achieved by paying out a larger percentage of profits. Xperi is already paying out a high percentage of its income, so without earnings growth, we're doubtful of whether this dividend will grow much in the future.
The Bottom Line
From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Xperi? It's never great to see earnings per share declining, especially when a company is paying out 130% of its profit as dividends, which we feel is uncomfortably high. Yet cashflow was much stronger, which makes us wonder if there are some large timing issues in Xperi's cash flows, or perhaps the company has written down some assets aggressively, reducing its income. It's not that we think Xperi is a bad company, but these characteristics don't generally lead to outstanding dividend performance.
Ever wonder what the future holds for Xperi? See what the four 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.
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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.
