The board of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:APAM) has announced that it will be paying its dividend of $0.73 on the 29th of August, an increased payment from last year's comparable dividend. This will take the dividend yield to an attractive 8.0%, providing a nice boost to shareholder returns.

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Estimates Indicate Artisan Partners Asset Management's Could Struggle to Maintain Dividend Payments In The Future

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Artisan Partners Asset Management was paying out 81% of earnings and more than 75% of free cash flows. This indicates that the company is more focused on returning cash to shareholders than growing the business, but we don't think that there are necessarily signs that the dividend might be unsustainable.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to fall by 3.0%. If the dividend continues along the path it has been on recently, the payout ratio in 12 months could be 107%, which is definitely a bit high to be sustainable going forward.

See our latest analysis for Artisan Partners Asset Management

Dividend Volatility

Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. The annual payment during the last 10 years was $2.20 in 2015, and the most recent fiscal year payment was $3.57. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 5.0% per annum over that time. 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.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

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. However, Artisan Partners Asset Management has only grown its earnings per share at 5.0% per annum over the past five years. Earnings are not growing quickly at all, and the company is paying out most of its profit as dividends. When a company prefers to pay out cash to its shareholders instead of reinvesting it, this can often say a lot about that company's dividend prospects.

Our Thoughts On Artisan Partners Asset Management's Dividend

Overall, this is probably not a great income stock, even though the dividend is being raised at the moment. The track record isn't great, and the payments are a bit high to be considered sustainable. This company is not in the top tier of income providing stocks.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 3 warning signs for Artisan Partners Asset Management 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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