Only 3 Days Left To Cash In On Principal Financial Group Inc (NASDAQ:PFG) Dividend, Is It Worth Buying?
On the 29 March 2018, Principal Financial Group Inc (NASDAQ:PFG) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of $0.51 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 02 March 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 3 days left! Is this future income stream a compelling catalyst for dividend investors to think about the stock as an investment today? Let’s take a look at Principal Financial Group’s most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. View our latest analysis for Principal Financial Group
5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock
Whenever I am looking at a potential dividend stock investment, I always check these five metrics:
Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?
Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Is it able 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?
Does Principal Financial Group pass our checks?
The company currently pays out 23.38% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect PFG’s payout to increase to 39.43% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 3.54%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $5.58 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. 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. Compared to its peers, Principal Financial Group produces a yield of 3.23%, which is high for Insurance stocks.
Next Steps:
Taking into account the dividend metrics, Principal Financial Group 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. I’ve put together three pertinent factors you should look at:
1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PFG’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for PFG’s outlook.
2. Valuation: What is PFG 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 PFG is currently mispriced by the market.
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.
