Should Saratoga Investment Corp (NYSE:SAR) Be Part Of Your Portfolio?
Dividends can be underrated but they form a large part of investment returns, playing an important role in compounding returns in the long run. Over the past 10 years, Saratoga Investment Corp (NYSE:SAR) has returned an average of 22.00% per year to shareholders in terms of dividend yield. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let’s take a look at Saratoga Investment in more detail. See our latest analysis for Saratoga Investment
5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?
Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?
Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?
Does Saratoga Investment pass our checks?
The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 66.10%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect SAR’s payout to increase to 91.96% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 8.38%. 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. This also brings about uncertainty around the sustainability of the payout ratio.
If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it’s dividend stocks and their constant income stream. Not only have dividend payouts from Saratoga Investment fallen over the past 10 years, it has also been highly volatile during this time, with drops of over 25% in some years. These characteristics do not bode well for income investors seeking reliable stream of dividends.
Compared to its peers, Saratoga Investment produces a yield of 8.40%, which is high for Capital Markets stocks.
Next Steps:
Whilst there are few things you may like about Saratoga Investment from a dividend stock perspective, the truth is that overall it probably is not the best choice for a dividend investor. However, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still offer some interesting investment opportunities. 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 fundamental aspects you should look at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SAR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SAR’s outlook.
Valuation: What is SAR 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 SAR 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 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.
