It looks like Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is usually set to be one business day before the record date which is the cut-off date on which you must be present on the company's books as a shareholder in order to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade takes at least two business day to settle. In other words, investors can purchase Standard Motor Products' shares before the 14th of February in order to be eligible for the dividend, which will be paid on the 1st of March.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.29 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.16 per share. Last year's total dividend payments show that Standard Motor Products has a trailing yield of 2.9% on the current share price of US$40.53. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Standard Motor Products's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

See our latest analysis for Standard Motor Products

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Fortunately Standard Motor Products's payout ratio is modest, at just 39% of profit. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Standard Motor Products generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. What's good is that dividends were well covered by free cash flow, with the company paying out 16% of its cash flow last year.

It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.

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

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Standard Motor Products, with earnings per share up 9.1% on average over the last five years. The company is retaining more than half of its earnings within the business, and it has been growing earnings at a decent rate. We think this is generally an attractive combination, as dividends can grow through a combination of earnings growth and or a higher payout ratio over time.