Only 2 Days Left Before FutureFuel Corp (NYSE:FF) Will Start Trading Ex-Dividend, Is It Worth Buying?

Have you been keeping an eye on FutureFuel Corp’s (NYSE:FF) upcoming dividend of US$0.06 per share payable on the 18 September 2018? Then you only have 2 days left before the stock starts trading ex-dividend on the 31 August 2018. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about FutureFuel as an investment today? Below, I’m going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail.

See our latest analysis for FutureFuel

Here’s how I find good dividend stocks

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

• Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?

• Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?

• Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

• Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

• Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

NYSE:FF Historical Dividend Yield August 28th 18

How does FutureFuel fare?

FutureFuel has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 17.2%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward.

If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view FutureFuel as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 9 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

Compared to its peers, FutureFuel generates a yield of 1.6%, which is on the low-side for Chemicals stocks.

Next Steps:

After digging a little deeper into FutureFuel’s yield, it’s easy to see why you should be cautious investing in the company just for the dividend. On the other hand, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still be offering some interesting investment opportunities. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. There are three relevant aspects you should further examine:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for FF’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for FF’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is FF 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 FF is currently mispriced by the market.

3. 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.