The board of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) has announced that it will pay a dividend of $0.24 per share on the 17th of March. This means that the annual payment will be 2.4% of the current stock price, which is in line with the average for the industry.
Check out our latest analysis for Virtu Financial
We like to see a healthy dividend yield, but that is only helpful to us if the payment can continue. However, Virtu Financial's earnings easily cover the dividend. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.
Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 1.6% over the next year. If the dividend continues along the path it has been on recently, we estimate the payout ratio could be 31%, which is comfortable for the company to continue in the future.
Even though the company has been paying a consistent dividend for a while, we would like to see a few more years before we feel comfortable relying on it. The most recent annual payment of $0.96 is about the same as the annual payment 9 years ago. It's good to see at least some dividend growth. Yet with a relatively short dividend paying history, we wouldn't want to depend on this dividend too heavily.
Some investors will be chomping at the bit to buy some of the company's stock based on its dividend history. Unfortunately things aren't as good as they seem. Over the past five years, it looks as though Virtu Financial's EPS has declined at around 9.0% a year. Declining earnings will inevitably lead to the company paying a lower dividend in line with lower profits.
Overall, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. In the past, the payments have been unstable, but over the short term the dividend could be reliable, with the company generating enough cash to cover it. We would be a touch cautious of relying on this stock primarily for the dividend income.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Without at least some growth in earnings per share over time, the dividend will eventually come under pressure either from competition or inflation. See if the 9 analysts are forecasting a turnaround in our free collection of analyst estimates here. Is Virtu Financial not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.