Should You Buy Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) For Its Dividend?
Dividends play an important role in compounding returns in the long run and end up forming a sizeable part of investment returns. Historically, Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) has paid a dividend to shareholders. It currently yields 1.7%. Let’s dig deeper into whether Pentair should have a place in your portfolio.
See our latest analysis for Pentair
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
Whenever I am looking at a potential dividend stock investment, I always check these five metrics:
Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?
Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
Does Pentair pass our checks?
The company currently pays out 33% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting lower payout ratio of 29%, leading to a dividend yield of 2.0%. Furthermore, EPS is also forecasted to fall to $2.28 in the upcoming year. The lower EPS on top of a lower payout ratio will lead to a fall in dividend payment moving forward.
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. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot.
If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Although PNR’s per share payments have increased in the past 10 years, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Shareholders would have seen a few years of reduced payments in this time.
In terms of its peers, Pentair has a yield of 1.7%, which is on the low-side for Machinery stocks.
Next Steps:
With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Pentair as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. 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. I’ve put together three key factors you should further examine:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PNR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for PNR’s outlook.
Valuation: What is PNR 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 PNR 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.
