Is Culp Inc (NYSE:CULP) A Good Dividend Stock?

Dividends play a key role in compounding returns over time and can form a large part of our portfolio return. Historically, Culp Inc (NYSE:CULP) has been paying a dividend to shareholders. Today it yields 2.5%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let’s take a look at Culp in more detail.

See our latest analysis for Culp

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 its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?

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

• Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?

• Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

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

Does Culp pass our checks?

The company currently pays out 26% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward.

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. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot.

If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. The reality is that it is too early to consider Culp as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 6 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

Relative to peers, Culp generates a yield of 2.5%, which is high for Luxury stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in Culp for the dividend. 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 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 relevant aspects you should further examine:

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

2. Valuation: What is CULP 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 CULP is currently mispriced by the market.

3. 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.