Advertisement
Canada markets close in 3 hours 17 minutes
  • S&P/TSX

    22,177.58
    +70.50 (+0.32%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,251.88
    +3.39 (+0.06%)
     
  • DOW

    39,766.61
    +6.53 (+0.02%)
     
  • CAD/USD

    0.7394
    +0.0021 (+0.29%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    82.78
    +1.43 (+1.76%)
     
  • Bitcoin CAD

    95,898.37
    +2,371.23 (+2.54%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,242.00
    +29.30 (+1.32%)
     
  • RUSSELL 2000

    2,133.55
    +19.20 (+0.91%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.1910
    -0.0050 (-0.12%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    16,388.56
    -10.96 (-0.07%)
     
  • VOLATILITY

    12.94
    +0.16 (+1.25%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,959.86
    +27.88 (+0.35%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • CAD/EUR

    0.6838
    +0.0033 (+0.48%)
     

Is Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) An Attractive Dividend Stock?

Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card!

Could Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. Yet sometimes, investors buy a popular dividend stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.

While Devon Energy's 1.1% dividend yield is not the highest, we think its lengthy payment history is quite interesting. The company also bought back stock during the year, equivalent to approximately 30% of the company's market capitalisation at the time. Some simple analysis can offer a lot of insights when buying a company for its dividend, and we'll go through this below.

ADVERTISEMENT

Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis

NYSE:DVN Historical Dividend Yield, May 13th 2019
NYSE:DVN Historical Dividend Yield, May 13th 2019

Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to be form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. In the last year, Devon Energy paid out 28% of its profit as dividends. This is a middling range that strikes a nice balance between paying dividends to shareholders, and retaining enough earnings to invest in future growth. Plus, there is room to increase the payout ratio over time.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Last year, Devon Energy paid a dividend while reporting negative free cash flow. While there may be an explanation, we think this behaviour is generally not sustainable.

Is Devon Energy's Balance Sheet Risky?

As Devon Energy has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick way to check a company's financial situation uses these two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments on debt. Essentially we check that a) a company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. Devon Energy has net debt of less than two times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), which we think is not too troublesome.

We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. With EBIT of 3.33 times its interest expense, Devon Energy's interest cover is starting to look a bit thin.

We update our data on Devon Energy every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Devon Energy has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. Its dividend payments have fallen by 20% or more on at least one occasion over the past ten years. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$0.64 in 2009, compared to US$0.36 last year. This works out to be a decline of approximately -5.6% per year over that time. Devon Energy's dividend hasn't shrunk linearly at -5.6% per annum, but the CAGR is a useful estimate of the historical rate of change.

Dividend Growth Potential

Given that dividend payments have been shrinking like a glacier in a warming world, we need to check if there are some bright spots on the horizon. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see Devon Energy has grown its earnings per share at 18% per annum over the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing at a good rate, and the company is paying less than half its earnings as dividends. We generally think this is an attractive combination, as it permits further reinvestment in the business.

Conclusion

When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. Firstly, the company has a conservative payout ratio, although we'd note that its cashflow in the past year was substantially lower than its reported profit. We were also glad to see it growing earnings, but it was concerning to see the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Ultimately, Devon Energy comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis.

Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 20 Devon Energy analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with our free report on analyst estimates for the company.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.