FBL Financial Group Inc (NYSE:FFG): 4 Days To Buy Before The Ex-Dividend Date
On the 28 September 2018, FBL Financial Group Inc (NYSE:FFG) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of US$0.46 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 13 September 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 4 days left! Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about FBL Financial Group 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 FBL Financial Group
5 checks you should do on a dividend stock
If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:
Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?
Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?
How well does FBL Financial Group fit our criteria?
The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 23.5%, which means that the dividend is 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 assessing the forecast sustainability of a dividend it is also worth considering 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 dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock you’re eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Although FFG’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, FBL Financial Group has a yield of 4.1%, which is high for Insurance stocks.
Next Steps:
Considering the dividend attributes we analyzed above, FBL Financial Group is definitely worth keeping an eye on for someone looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. 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. There are three pertinent aspects you should further research:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for FFG’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for FFG’s outlook.
Valuation: What is FFG 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 FFG 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.
