Important news for shareholders and potential investors in Keyera Corp (TSX:KEY): The dividend payment of CA$0.14 per share will be distributed into shareholder on 15 December 2017, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 21 November 2017. So if you want to cash in on KEY’s dividend payment and are not yet a shareholder, you have only few days left! Today I am going to take a look at KEY’s most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. See our latest analysis for KEY

5 checks you should do on a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

• Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?

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

• Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?

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

• Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

Does Keyera pass our checks?

The company currently pays out 128.62% of its earnings as a dividend, which means that the dividend is not well-covered by its earnings. Going forward, analysts expect KEY’s payout to reduce to 97.04% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 4.82%. However, EPS should increase to CA$1.67, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. In the case of KEY it has increased its DPS from CA$0.75 to CA$1.68 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. In terms of its peers, KEY has a yield of 4.60%, which is high for oil, gas and consumable fuels stocks.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder?

Are you a shareholder? With Keyera producing strong dividend income for your portfolio over the past few years, you can take comfort in knowing that this stock will still continue to be a robust dividend generator moving forward. However, depending on your current portfolio, it may be valuable exploring other dividend stocks to increase diversification, or even look at high-growth stocks to supplement your steady income stocks. I encourage you to continue 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? Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, KEY is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. I also recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. Another aspect to consider for KEY is how much it’s actually worth. Can you still benefit from a mispricing of the stock? Check our latest free analysis to find out!

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.