How Does Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK) Fare As A Dividend Stock?
Dividends play an important role in compounding returns in the long run and end up forming a sizeable part of investment returns. Historically, Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK) has paid a dividend to shareholders. It currently yields 2.6%. Let’s dig deeper into whether Weis Markets should have a place in your portfolio.
Check out our latest analysis for Weis Markets
5 checks you should do on a dividend stock
Whenever I am looking at a potential dividend stock investment, I always check these five metrics:
Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer?
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?
Is is able 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?
How well does Weis Markets fit our criteria?
Weis Markets has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 29%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently 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.
When thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable, another factor to consider is the cash flow. Cash flow is important because companies with strong cash flow can usually sustain higher payout ratios.
If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it’s dividend stocks and their constant income stream. WMK has increased its DPS from $1.16 to $1.24 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. This is an impressive feat, which makes WMK a true dividend rockstar.
Relative to peers, Weis Markets has a yield of 2.6%, which is high for Consumer Retailing stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.
Next Steps:
Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, Weis Markets is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. I’ve put together three pertinent factors you should further research:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for WMK’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for WMK’s outlook.
Valuation: What is WMK 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 WMK 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.
