3 Days Left Before Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE:CAH) Will Start Trading Ex-Dividend, Is It Worth Buying?
If you are interested in cashing in on Cardinal Health Inc’s (NYSE:CAH) upcoming dividend of $0.46 per share, you only have 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 29 December 2017, in time for dividends payable on the 15 January 2018. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about Cardinal Health 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. View our latest analysis for Cardinal Health
Here’s how I find good dividend stocks
If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:
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 amount increased over the past?
Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
How does Cardinal Health fare?
The company currently pays out 52.64% of its earnings as a dividend, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting lower payout ratio of 32.51%, leading to a dividend yield of around 3.14%. However, EPS should increase to $3.54, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. In the case of CAH it has increased its DPS from $0.48 to $1.85 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes CAH a true dividend rockstar. In terms of its peers, Cardinal Health has a yield of 2.96%, which is high for healthcare stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? With Cardinal Health producing strong dividend income for your portfolio over the past few years, you can take comfort in knowing that this stock will still continue to be a robust dividend generator moving forward. However, depending on your portfolio composition, it may be worth exploring other income stocks to enhance your diversification, or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I suggest continuing your research by taking a look at my interactive free list of dividend rockstars as well as high-growth stocks to potentially add to your holdings.
Are you a potential investor? Taking into account the dividend metrics, Cardinal Health ticks most of the boxes as a strong dividend investment, putting it in my list of top dividend payers. As with all investments, 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. No matter how much of a cash cow the stock is, it is not worth an infinite price. Is Cardinal Health still a bargain? Take a look at our latest free analysis to find out!
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.
