KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR): 4 Days To Buy Before The Ex-Dividend Date
Shares of KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR) will begin trading ex-dividend in 4 days. To qualify for the dividend check of US$0.35 per share, investors must have owned the shares prior to 19 September 2018, which is the last day the company’s management will finalize their list of shareholders to which they will send dividend payments. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about KAR Auction Services 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.
See our latest analysis for KAR Auction Services
Here’s how I find good dividend stocks
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 its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?
Will the company be able to keep paying dividend based on the future earnings growth?
How does KAR Auction Services fare?
KAR Auction Services has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 44.2%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a payout ratio of 41.1%, leading to a dividend yield of 2.2%. Furthermore, EPS is forecasted to fall to $2.58 in the upcoming year.
When assessing the forecast sustainability of a dividend it is also worth considering 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 there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view KAR Auction Services 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, KAR Auction Services generates a yield of 2.2%, which is high for Commercial Services stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.
Next Steps:
If you are building an income portfolio, then KAR Auction Services is a complicated choice since it has some positive aspects as well as negative ones. 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 essential factors you should further examine:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for KAR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for KAR’s outlook.
Valuation: What is KAR 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 KAR 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 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.
