Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.'s (NYSE:ZBH) investors are due to receive a payment of $0.24 per share on 31st of July. The dividend yield is 1.1% based on this payment, which is a little bit low compared to the other companies in the industry.
The dividend yield is a little bit low, but sustainability of the payments is also an important part of evaluating an income stock. However, prior to this announcement, Zimmer Biomet Holdings' dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that most of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.
Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 50.5%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 14%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.
Check out our latest analysis for Zimmer Biomet Holdings
Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. The dividend has gone from an annual total of $0.88 in 2015 to the most recent total annual payment of $0.96. Dividend payments have grown at less than 1% a year over this period. Slow and steady dividend growth might not sound that exciting, but dividends have been stable for ten years, which we think makes this a fairly attractive offer.
The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. Zimmer Biomet Holdings has impressed us by growing EPS at 20% per year over the past five years. Earnings per share is growing at a solid clip, and the payout ratio is low which we think is an ideal combination in a dividend stock as the company can quite easily raise the dividend in the future.
In summary, it is good to see that the dividend is staying consistent, and we don't think there is any reason to suspect this might change over the medium term. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.
Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. As an example, we've identified 1 warning sign for Zimmer Biomet Holdings that you should be aware of before investing. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.
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