The board of Crown Crafts, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWS) has announced that it will pay a dividend of $0.08 per share on the 5th of January. Based on this payment, the dividend yield on the company's stock will be 6.2%, which is an attractive boost to shareholder returns.

View our latest analysis for Crown Crafts

Crown Crafts' Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

While it is great to have a strong dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is sustainable. The last payment made up 74% of earnings, but cash flows were much higher. Since the dividend is just paying out cash to shareholders, we care more about the cash payout ratio from which we can see plenty is being left over for reinvestment in the business.

EPS is set to grow by 2.2% over the next year if recent trends continue. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, our estimates say the payout ratio could reach 76%, which is definitely on the higher side, but we wouldn't necessarily say this is unsustainable.

Dividend Volatility

The company has a long dividend track record, but it doesn't look great with cuts in the past. The payments haven't really changed that much since 10 years ago. The dividend has seen some fluctuations in the past, so even though the dividend was raised this year, we should remember that it has been cut in the past.

The Dividend's Growth Prospects Are Limited

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share is growing, which could point to a growing dividend in the future. Earnings has been rising at 2.2% per annum over the last five years, which admittedly is a bit slow. Crown Crafts' earnings per share has barely grown, which is not ideal - perhaps this is why the company pays out the majority of its earnings to shareholders. That's fine as far as it goes, but we're less enthusiastic as this often signals that the dividend is likely to grow slower in the future.

Our Thoughts On Crown Crafts' Dividend

Overall, a consistent dividend is a good thing, and we think that Crown Crafts has the ability to continue this into the future. The payout ratio looks good, but unfortunately the company's dividend track record isn't stellar. This looks like it could be a good dividend stock going forward, but we would note that the payout ratio has been at higher levels in the past so it could happen again.

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. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 3 warning signs for Crown Crafts that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.