Marine Products Corporation (NYSE:MPX): 4 Days To Buy Before The Ex-Dividend Date
Important news for shareholders and potential investors in Marine Products Corporation (NYSE:MPX): The dividend payment of US$0.10 per share will be distributed to shareholders on 10 December 2018, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 08 November 2018. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I examine Marine Products’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend characteristics.
Check out our latest analysis for Marine Products
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:
Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?
Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?
Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?
How well does Marine Products fit our criteria?
The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 51%, 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.
Reliablity is an important factor for dividend stocks, particularly for income investors who want a strong track record of payment and a positive outlook for future payout. Whilst its per-share payments have increased during the past 10 years, there has been some hiccups. Investors have seen reductions in the dividend per share in the past, although, it has picked up again.
Relative to peers, Marine Products has a yield of 2.3%, which is high for Leisure stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.
Next Steps:
Taking all the above into account, Marine Products is a complicated pick for dividend investors given that there are a couple of positive things about it as well as negative. 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, 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 examine:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for MPX’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for MPX’s outlook.
Valuation: What is MPX 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 MPX is currently mispriced by the market.
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.
