Is Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) A Smart Choice For Dividend Investors?
Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) has pleased shareholders over the past 10 years, by paying out dividends. The company currently pays out a dividend yield of 2.6% to shareholders, making it a relatively attractive dividend stock. Let’s dig deeper into whether Ingredion should have a place in your portfolio.
Check out our latest analysis for Ingredion
Here’s how I find good dividend stocks
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?
Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?
How well does Ingredion fit our criteria?
Ingredion has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 39%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting lower payout ratio of 34% which, assuming the share price stays the same, leads to a dividend yield of around 2.6%. However, EPS should increase to $7.39, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment.
When thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable, another factor to consider is the cash flow. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.
If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. INGR has increased its DPS from $0.56 to $2.5 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. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.
Relative to peers, Ingredion has a yield of 2.6%, which is on the low-side for Food stocks.
Next Steps:
Taking into account the dividend metrics, Ingredion ticks most of the boxes as a strong dividend investment, putting it in my list of top dividend payers. 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 fundamental aspects you should look at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for INGR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for INGR’s outlook.
Valuation: What is INGR 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 INGR 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.
