Attention dividend hunters! Lamar Advertising Company (REIT) (NASDAQ:LAMR) will be distributing its dividend of $0.83 per share in 3 days time, on the 29 December 2017, and will start trading ex-dividend on the 15 December 2017. So if you want to cash in on LAMR’s dividend payment and are not yet a shareholder, you have only few days left! Today I am going to take a look at LAMR’s most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. View our latest analysis for Lamar Advertising Company (REIT)

Here’s how I find good dividend stocks

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?

• Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?

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

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

• Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

How does Lamar Advertising Company (REIT) fare?

Lamar Advertising Company (REIT) has a payout ratio of 102.24%, which means that the dividend is not well-covered by its earnings. Going forward, analysts expect LAMR’s payout to increase to 125.82% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 4.98%. In addition to this, EPS should increase to $3.27. The higher payout forecasted, along with higher earnings, should lead to greater dividend income for investors moving forward. 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. The reality is that it is too early to consider Lamar Advertising Company (REIT) as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 4 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record. In terms of its peers, LAMR generates a yield of 4.34%, which is high for reits stocks.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? You may be wondering why Lamar Advertising Company (REIT) is paying out dividends at all, instead of re-investing into the business to generate higher cash flows in the future. It may be worth exploring other dividend stocks as alternatives to LAMR or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I recommend continuing your research by taking a look at my interactive free list of dividend rockstars as well as high-growth stocks to potentially add to your holdings.

Are you a potential investor? Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in LAMR for the dividend. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, LAMR could still be an interesting investment opportunity. As always, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Dig deeper in our latest free fundmental analysis to explore other aspects of LAMR.

To help readers see pass 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.