Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Admiral Group plc (LON:ADM) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 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 an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Thus, you can purchase Admiral Group's shares before the 5th of September in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 4th of October.

The company's next dividend payment will be UK￡0.71 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK￡1.23 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Admiral Group stock has a trailing yield of around 4.2% on the current share price of UK￡29.18. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! As a result, readers should always check whether Admiral Group has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for Admiral Group

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Admiral Group is paying out an acceptable 66% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies.

Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.

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

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks with flat earnings can still be attractive dividend payers, but it is important to be more conservative with your approach and demand a greater margin for safety when it comes to dividend sustainability. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. That explains why we're not overly excited about Admiral Group's flat earnings over the past five years. We'd take that over an earnings decline any day, but in the long run, the best dividend stocks all grow their earnings per share.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Admiral Group has delivered 2.1% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years.