Sienna Senior Living Inc. (TSE:SIA) will pay a dividend of CA$0.078 on the 15th of December. This means the annual payment is 8.5% of the current stock price, which is above the average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Sienna Senior Living

Sienna Senior Living Might Find It Hard To Continue The Dividend

Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. Sienna Senior Living isn't generating any profits, and it is paying out a very high proportion of the cash it is earning. These payout levels would generally be quite difficult to keep up.

Looking forward, earnings per share could rise by 0.2% over the next year if the trend from the last few years continues. The company seems to be going down the right path, but it will probably take a little bit longer than a year to cross over into profitability. Unfortunately, for the dividend to continue at current levels the company definitely needs to get there sooner rather than later. historic-dividend

Sienna Senior Living 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 CA$0.90 in 2013 to the most recent total annual payment of CA$0.936. Dividend payments have grown at less than 1% a year over this period. Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Although it's important to note that Sienna Senior Living's earnings per share has basically not grown from where it was five years ago, which could erode the purchasing power of the dividend over time. Sienna Senior Living isn't actually turning a profit, which makes it much harder for us to see how they can grow dividends.

Sienna Senior Living's Dividend Doesn't Look Sustainable

Overall, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. We can't deny that the payments have been very stable, but we are a little bit worried about the very high payout ratio. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. 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 2 warning signs for Sienna Senior Living that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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