Four Days Left To Buy Deswell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSWL) Before The Ex-Dividend Date

Readers hoping to buy Deswell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSWL) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. If you purchase the stock on or after the 20th of November, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 10th of December.

Deswell Industries's next dividend payment will be US$0.09 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.18 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Deswell Industries has a trailing yield of 6.2% on the current share price of $2.92. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.

Check out our latest analysis for Deswell Industries

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Deswell Industries 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 Deswell Industries 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. 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.

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

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. Deswell Industries reported a loss last year, but at least the general trend suggests its income has 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.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Deswell Industries has seen its dividend decline 7.7% per annum on average over the past 10 years, which is not great to see.

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

The Bottom Line

Is Deswell Industries an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? 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." All things considered, we are not particularly enthused about Deswell Industries from a dividend perspective.

With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Deswell Industries you should know about.

We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

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.

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