Be Sure To Check Out Computacenter plc (LON:CCC) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend

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5 days ago

It looks like Computacenter plc (LON:CCC) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 3 days. The ex-dividend date is two business days before a company's record date in most cases, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade can take two business days or more to settle. Therefore, if you purchase Computacenter's shares on or after the 5th of June, you won't be eligible to receive the dividend, when it is paid on the 4th of July.
The company's next dividend payment will be UK£0.474 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK£0.71 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Computacenter has a trailing yield of 2.7% on the current share price of UK£26.04. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Computacenter's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether Computacenter has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
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If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Fortunately Computacenter's payout ratio is modest, at just 46% of profit. 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. The good news is it paid out just 20% of its free cash flow in the last year.
It's positive to see that Computacenter's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.
View our latest analysis for Computacenter
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
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, Computacenter's earnings per share have been growing at 13% a year for the past five years. Earnings per share are growing rapidly and the company is keeping more than half of its earnings within the business; an attractive combination which could suggest the company is focused on reinvesting to grow earnings further. This will make it easier to fund future growth efforts and we think this is an attractive combination - plus the dividend can always be increased later.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Computacenter has delivered an average of 13% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.
Should investors buy Computacenter for the upcoming dividend? Computacenter has grown its earnings per share while simultaneously reinvesting in the business. Unfortunately it's cut the dividend at least once in the past 10 years, but the conservative payout ratio makes the current dividend look sustainable. It's a promising combination that should mark this company worthy of closer attention.
In light of that, while Computacenter has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. For example - Computacenter has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.
Generally, we wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see. Here's a curated list of interesting stocks that are strong dividend payers.
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