Don't Race Out To Buy BGSF, Inc. (NYSE:BGSF) Just Because It's Going Ex-Dividend

BGSF, Inc. (NYSE:BGSF) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 14th of May will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 24th of May.

BGSF's upcoming dividend is US$0.10 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.40 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, BGSF has a trailing yield of approximately 3.0% on its current stock price of $13.12. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether BGSF can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for BGSF

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. BGSF paid out 158% of profit in the past year, which we think is typically not sustainable unless there are mitigating characteristics such as unusually strong cash flow or a large cash balance. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether BGSF generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. Fortunately, it paid out only 32% of its free cash flow in the past year.

It's good to see that while BGSF's dividends were not covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a cash perspective. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.

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

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. BGSF's earnings per share have plummeted approximately 39% a year over the previous five years.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. BGSF has seen its dividend decline 6.5% per annum on average over the past six years, which is not great to see. While it's not great that earnings and dividends per share have fallen in recent years, we're encouraged by the fact that management has trimmed the dividend rather than risk over-committing the company in a risky attempt to maintain yields to shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Is BGSF an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? It's not a great combination to see a company with earnings in decline and paying out 158% of its profits, which could imply the dividend may be at risk of being cut in the future. However, the cash payout ratio was much lower - good news from a dividend perspective - which makes us wonder why there is such a mis-match between income and cashflow. Bottom line: BGSF has some unfortunate characteristics that we think could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for dividend investors.

So if you're still interested in BGSF despite it's poor dividend qualities, you should be well informed on some of the risks facing this stock. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 5 warning signs for BGSF you should know about.

A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising 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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