Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) has announced that it will pay a dividend of $0.5275 per share on the 10th of March. This payment means the dividend yield will be 1.7%, which is below the average for the industry.

View our latest analysis for Emerson Electric

Emerson Electric's Future Dividend Projections Appear Well Covered By Earnings

It would be nice for the yield to be higher, but we should also check if higher levels of dividend payment would be sustainable. Based on the last payment, Emerson Electric was quite comfortably earning enough to cover the dividend. This indicates that quite a large proportion of earnings is being invested back into the business.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 65.8% over the next year. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 36% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.

Emerson Electric Has A Solid Track Record

The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. The dividend has gone from an annual total of $1.72 in 2015 to the most recent total annual payment of $2.11. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 2.1% over that duration. Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend.

Emerson Electric May Find It Hard To Grow The Dividend

Some investors will be chomping at the bit to buy some of the company's stock based on its dividend history. Emerson Electric hasn't seen much change in its earnings per share over the last five years. The company has been growing at a pretty soft 0.4% per annum, and is paying out quite a lot of its earnings to shareholders. This isn't bad in itself, but unless earnings growth pick up we wouldn't expect dividends to grow either.

Emerson Electric Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

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. Earnings are easily covering distributions, and the company is generating plenty of cash. All of these factors considered, we think this has solid potential as a dividend stock.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. For instance, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Emerson Electric that investors should take into consideration. 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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