3 Days Left Before James Fisher and Sons plc (LON:FSJ) Will Be Trading Ex-Dividend

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Investors who want to cash in on James Fisher and Sons plc's (LON:FSJ) upcoming dividend of UK£0.21 per share have only 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 04 April 2019, in time for dividends payable on the 10 May 2019. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into James Fisher and Sons's latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes.

View our latest analysis for James Fisher and Sons

5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock

Whenever I am looking at a potential dividend stock investment, I always check these five metrics:

• Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?

• Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?

• Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?

• Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?

• Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?

How does James Fisher and Sons fare?

The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 35%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect FSJ's payout to remain around the same level at 38% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 2.0%. Furthermore, EPS should increase to £0.94.

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 business with strong cash flow can sustain a higher divided payout ratio than a company with weak cash flow.

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. FSJ has increased its DPS from £0.13 to £0.32 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.

Compared to its peers, James Fisher and Sons generates a yield of 1.6%, which is on the low-side for Infrastructure stocks.

Next Steps:

Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, James Fisher and Sons is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. 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 essential factors you should further examine:

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

2. Valuation: What is FSJ 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 FSJ 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.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.