Yahoo Finance HomeServe plc (LON:HSV): Ex-Dividend Is In 4 Days
If you are interested in cashing in on HomeServe plc’s (LON:HSV) upcoming dividend of UK£0.052 per share, you only have 4 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 06 December 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 07 January 2019. What does this mean for current shareholders and potential investors? Below, I will explain how holding HomeServe can impact your portfolio income stream, by analysing the stock’s most recent financial data and dividend attributes.
Check out our latest analysis for HomeServe
5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?
Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?
Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?
How well does HomeServe fit our criteria?
The company currently pays out 67% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect HSV’s payout to fall to 57% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 2.5%. However, EPS should increase to £0.33, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment.
If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.
If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it’s dividend stocks and their constant income stream. In the case of HSV it has increased its DPS from £0.067 to £0.19 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. This is an impressive feat, which makes HSV a true dividend rockstar.
Relative to peers, HomeServe has a yield of 2.0%, which is on the low-side for Commercial Services stocks.
Next Steps:
Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, HomeServe is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company’s fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. Below, I’ve compiled three pertinent factors you should further research:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HSV’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for HSV’s outlook.
Valuation: What is HSV worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it’s not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HSV is currently mispriced by the market.
Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
