Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust plc (LON:ORIT) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four 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 important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. Thus, you can purchase Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust's shares before the 15th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 30th of August.

The company's upcoming dividend is UK￡0.0151 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of UK￡0.058 per share to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust has a trailing yield of 7.8% on the current share price of UK￡0.768. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust paid out a disturbingly high 258% of its profit as dividends last year, which makes us concerned there's something we don't fully understand in the business.

When a company pays out a dividend that is not well covered by profits, the dividend is generally seen as more vulnerable to being cut.

Click here to see how much of its profit Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. It's not encouraging to see that Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust's earnings are effectively flat over the past three 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.