2 Days Left Before Townsquare Media Inc (NYSE:TSQ) Will Start Trading Ex-Dividend, Should You Buy?
Important news for shareholders and potential investors in Townsquare Media Inc (NYSE:TSQ): The dividend payment of US$0.075 per share will be distributed into shareholder on 15 August 2018, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 27 June 2018. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into Townsquare Media’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. Check out our latest analysis for Townsquare Media
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?
Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
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?
Does Townsquare Media pass our checks?
Townsquare Media has a negative payout ratio, meaning that the company is not yet profitable and is paying dividend by dipping into its retained earnings.
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 Townsquare Media as a dividend investment. It has only been paying out dividend for the past one year. Generally, the rule of thumb for determining whether a stock is a reliable dividend payer is that it should be consistently paying dividends for the past 10 years or more. Clearly there’s a long road ahead before we can ascertain whether TSQ one as a stable dividend player.
In terms of its peers, Townsquare Media generates a yield of 4.70%, which is high for Media stocks.
Next Steps:
Whilst there are few things you may like about Townsquare Media from a dividend stock perspective, the truth is that overall it probably is not the best choice for a dividend investor. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. 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. I’ve put together three essential factors you should further research:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for TSQ’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for TSQ’s outlook.
Valuation: What is TSQ 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 TSQ is currently mispriced by the market.
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 pass 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.
