Silgan Holdings Inc.'s (NASDAQ:SLGN) Could Be A Buy For Its Upcoming Dividend

Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Silgan Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SLGN) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You can purchase shares before the 29th of May in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 15th of June.

Silgan Holdings's next dividend payment will be US$0.12 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.48 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Silgan Holdings stock has a trailing yield of around 1.5% on the current share price of $32.38. 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.

View our latest analysis for Silgan Holdings

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Silgan Holdings is paying out just 24% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events. 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. What's good is that dividends were well covered by free cash flow, with the company paying out 19% of its cash flow last year.

It's positive to see that Silgan Holdings'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.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

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. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Silgan Holdings, with earnings per share up 5.1% on average over the last five years. Earnings per share have been increasing steadily and management is reinvesting almost all of the profits back into the business. This is an attractive combination, because when profits are reinvested effectively, growth can compound, with corresponding benefits for earnings and dividends in the future.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, ten years ago, Silgan Holdings has lifted its dividend by approximately 9.7% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

Final Takeaway

Should investors buy Silgan Holdings for the upcoming dividend? Earnings per share have been growing moderately, and Silgan Holdings is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow as dividends, which is an attractive combination as it suggests the company is investing in growth. It might be nice to see earnings growing faster, but Silgan Holdings is being conservative with its dividend payouts and could still perform reasonably over the long run. It's a promising combination that should mark this company worthy of closer attention.

In light of that, while Silgan Holdings has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Silgan Holdings you should know about.

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.

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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. 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. Thank you for reading.