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On the 14 September 2018, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of US$0.72 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 23 August 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 2 days left! Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about Hershey as an investment today? Below, 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 Hershey

5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

• Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer?

• Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?

• Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?

• Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

• Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

Does Hershey pass our checks?

The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 53.63%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect HSY’s payout to remain around the same level at 54.74% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 2.97%. Furthermore, EPS should increase to $5.49.

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. HSY has increased its DPS from $1.19 to $2.89 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.

Relative to peers, Hershey produces a yield of 2.85%, which is high for Food stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Considering the dividend attributes we analyzed above, Hershey is definitely worth keeping an eye on for someone looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. 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 fundamental factors you should further examine:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HSY’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for HSY’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is HSY 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 HSY 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 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.