Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR): Dividend Is Coming In 3 Days, Should You Buy?

Phillip Young
Updated

Shares of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) will begin trading ex-dividend in 3 days. To qualify for the dividend check of $0.34 per share, investors must have owned the shares prior to 22 December 2017, which is the last day the company’s management will finalize their list of shareholders to which they will send dividend payments. What does this mean for current shareholders and potential investors? Below, I will explain how holding Portland General Electric can impact your portfolio income stream, by analysing the stock’s most recent financial data and dividend attributes. See our latest analysis for Portland General Electric

How I analyze a dividend stock

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

  • Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?

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

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

  • Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

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

NYSE:POR Historical Dividend Yield Dec 18th 17
NYSE:POR Historical Dividend Yield Dec 18th 17

How does Portland General Electric fare?

The company currently pays out 57.04% of its earnings as a dividend, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a higher payout ratio of 63.18%, leading to a dividend yield of around 2.99%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $2.31 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income. 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. In the case of POR it has increased its DPS from $0.94 to $1.36 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock. Relative to peers, Portland General Electric has a yield of 2.85%, which is on the low-side for electric utilities stocks.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? Investors of Portland General Electric can continue to expect strong dividends from the stock moving forward. With its favorable dividend characteristics, Portland General Electric is one worth keeping around in your income portfolio. But, depending on your current portfolio, it may be worth exploring other income stocks to increase diversification, or even look at high-growth stocks to supplement your steady income stocks. I recommend continuing your research by checking out 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, Portland General Electric is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. 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. Another aspect to consider 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.