It looks like Crown Crafts, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWS) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. 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. Therefore, if you purchase Crown Crafts' shares on or after the 9th of September, you won't be eligible to receive the dividend, when it is paid on the 1st of October.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.08 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.57 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Crown Crafts has a trailing yield of 7.8% on the current stock price of $7.35. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Crown Crafts's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

See our latest analysis for Crown Crafts

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. Crown Crafts paid out a comfortable 43% of its profit last year. 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. It distributed 48% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level 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 how much of its profit Crown Crafts paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're not enthused to see that Crown Crafts's earnings per share have remained effectively flat over the past five years. It's better than seeing them drop, certainly, but over the long term, all of the best dividend stocks are able to meaningfully grow their earnings per share. Recent growth has not been impressive. Yet there are several ways to grow the dividend, and one of them is simply that the company may choose to pay out more of its earnings as dividends.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Crown Crafts has delivered 22% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years.

The Bottom Line

Is Crown Crafts an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Earnings per share have been flat over this time, but we're intrigued to see that Crown Crafts is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow as dividends. This is interesting for a few reasons, as it suggests management may be reinvesting heavily in the business, but it also provides room to increase the dividend in time. Generally we like to see both low payout ratios and strong earnings per share growth, but Crown Crafts is halfway there. Overall we think this is an attractive combination and worthy of further research.

On that note, you'll want to research what risks Crown Crafts is facing. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Crown Crafts (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you ought to be aware of before buying the shares.

If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

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.

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