Interested In FirstEnergy Corp (NYSE:FE)’s Upcoming $0.36 Dividend? You Have 3 Days Left
Investors who want to cash in on FirstEnergy Corp’s (NYSE:FE) upcoming dividend of $0.36 per share have only 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 06 February 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 01 March 2018. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I examine FirstEnergy’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend characteristics. See our latest analysis for FirstEnergy
5 checks you should do on a dividend stock
When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:
Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?
Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?
Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
How does FirstEnergy fare?
FirstEnergy has a negative payout ratio, which means that it is loss-making, and paying its dividend from its retained earnings. 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. Dividend payments from FirstEnergy have been volatile in the past 10 years, with some years experiencing significant drops of over 25%. This means that dividend hunters should probably steer clear of the stock, at least for now until the track record improves. In terms of its peers, FirstEnergy generates a yield of 4.46%, which is high for Electric Utilities stocks.
Next Steps:
Whilst there are few things you may like about FirstEnergy from a dividend stock perspective, the truth is that overall it probably is not the best choice for a dividend investor. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. 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. There are three important factors you should further research:
1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for FE’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for FE’s outlook.
2. Valuation: What is FE 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 FE is currently mispriced by the market.
3. 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 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.
