Read This Before Considering Horace Mann Educators Corporation (NYSE:HMN) For Its Upcoming US$0.28 Dividend
Have you been keeping an eye on Horace Mann Educators Corporation’s (NYSE:HMN) upcoming dividend of US$0.28 per share payable on the 28 September 2018? Then you only have 2 days left before the stock starts trading ex-dividend on the 13 September 2018. Should you diversify into Horace Mann Educators and boost your portfolio income stream? Well, keep on reading because today, I’m going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail.
View our latest analysis for Horace Mann Educators
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
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 the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Is is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
How well does Horace Mann Educators fit our criteria?
The company currently pays out 26.1% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a higher payout ratio of 47.6%, leading to a dividend yield of 2.6%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $2.23 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income.
If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.
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. Although HMN’s per share payments have increased in the past 10 years, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Investors have seen reductions in the dividend per share in the past, although, it has picked up again.
Relative to peers, Horace Mann Educators has a yield of 2.4%, which is on the low-side for Insurance stocks.
Next Steps:
With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Horace Mann Educators as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. 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. I’ve put together three essential factors you should look at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HMN’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for HMN’s outlook.
Valuation: What is HMN 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 HMN 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.
