3 Days Left To Cash In On Houlihan Lokey Inc (HLI) Dividend, Should Investors Buy?
Investors who want to cash in on Houlihan Lokey Inc’s (NYSE:HLI) upcoming dividend of $0.2 per share have only 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 01 December 2017, in time for dividends payable on the 15 December 2017. Is this future income stream a compelling catalyst for dividend investors to think about HLI as an investment today? Let’s take a look at HLI’s most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. View our latest analysis for Houlihan Lokey
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?
Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?
Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?
Does Houlihan Lokey pass our checks?
Houlihan Lokey has a payout ratio of 33.82%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect HLI’s payout to increase to 39.69% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 2.00%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $2.11 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. The reality is that it is too early to consider Houlihan Lokey as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 2 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record. Relative to peers, HLI has a yield of 1.80%, which is on the low-side for capital markets stocks.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? Investors may not have the best feeling about their investment in HLI right now, in terms of its dividend attributes. It may be valuable exploring other dividend stocks as alternatives to HLI or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I encourage you to continue 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? Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in HLI for the dividend. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, HLI could still be an interesting investment opportunity. As always, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Dig deeper in our latest free fundmental analysis to explore other aspects of HLI.
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.
