Only 3 Days Left To American National Insurance Company (NASDAQ:ANAT)’s Ex-Dividend Date, Should Investors Buy?
Important news for shareholders and potential investors in American National Insurance Company (NASDAQ:ANAT): The dividend payment of $0.82 per share will be distributed into shareholder on 16 March 2018, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 02 March 2018. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into American National Insurance’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. View our latest analysis for American National Insurance
How I analyze 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 it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
Can it afford 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 does American National Insurance fare?
The company currently pays out 42.25% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, 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. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. ANAT has increased its DPS from $3.08 to $3.28 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock. Relative to peers, American National Insurance generates a yield of 2.79%, which is on the low-side for Insurance stocks.
Next Steps:
Taking into account the dividend metrics, American National Insurance 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, 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. Below, I’ve compiled three essential factors you should look at:
1. Valuation: What is ANAT 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 ANAT is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on American National Insurance’s board and the CEO’s back ground.
3. 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 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.
