In This Article:
Shares of Swire Properties Limited (HKG:1972) will begin trading ex-dividend in 2 days. To qualify for the dividend check of HK$0.27 per share, investors must have owned the shares prior to 05 September 2018, which is the last day the company’s management will finalize their list of shareholders to which they will send dividend payments. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into Swire Properties’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes.
Check out our latest analysis for Swire Properties
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:
-
Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?
-
Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
-
Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?
-
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
-
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
Does Swire Properties pass our checks?
The company currently pays out 11.4% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect 1972’s payout to increase to 62.3% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 2.8%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to HK$1.54 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income.
Reliablity is an important factor for dividend stocks, particularly for income investors who want a strong track record of payment and a positive outlook for future payout. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view Swire Properties as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 7 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.
In terms of its peers, Swire Properties generates a yield of 2.5%, which is on the low-side for Real Estate stocks.
Next Steps:
Whilst there are few things you may like about Swire Properties from a dividend stock perspective, the truth is that overall it probably is not the best choice for a dividend investor. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. There are three relevant factors you should further examine: