Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Sarine Technologies Ltd. (SGX:U77) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Thus, you can purchase Sarine Technologies' shares before the 26th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 12th of September.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.0075 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.015 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Sarine Technologies has a trailing yield of 8.0% on the current share price of S$0.245. 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.

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Sarine Technologies lost money last year, so the fact that it's paying a dividend is certainly disconcerting. There might be a good reason for this, but we'd want to look into it further before getting comfortable. Considering the lack of profitability, we also need to check if the company generated enough cash flow to cover the dividend payment. If Sarine Technologies didn't generate enough cash to pay the dividend, then it must have either paid from cash in the bank or by borrowing money, neither of which is sustainable in the long term. The good news is it paid out just 21% of its free cash flow in the last year.

Click here to see how much of its profit Sarine Technologies paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks with flat earnings can still be attractive dividend payers, but it is important to be more conservative with your approach and demand a greater margin for safety when it comes to dividend sustainability. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. Sarine Technologies was unprofitable last year, but at least the general trend suggests its earnings have been improving over the past five years. Even so, an unprofitable company whose business does not quickly recover is usually not a good candidate for dividend investors.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Sarine Technologies has seen its dividend decline 13% per annum on average over the past 10 years, which is not great to see.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Sarine Technologies's financial health, by checking our visualisation of its financial health, here.

To Sum It Up

From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Sarine Technologies? First, it's not great to see the company paying a dividend despite being loss-making over the last year. On the plus side, the dividend was covered by free cash flow." Overall, it's not a bad combination, but we feel that there are likely more attractive dividend prospects out there.

However if you're still interested in Sarine Technologies as a potential investment, you should definitely consider some of the risks involved with Sarine Technologies. To help with this, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Sarine Technologies (1 can't be ignored!) that you ought to be aware of before buying the shares.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.