Yahoo Finance What To Know Before Buying Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ:DOX) For Its Dividend
Dividends can be underrated but they form a large part of investment returns, playing an important role in compounding returns in the long run. Historically, Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ:DOX) has paid dividends to shareholders, and these days it yields 1.9%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let’s take a look at Amdocs in more detail.
See our latest analysis for Amdocs
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 consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?
Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?
How well does Amdocs fit our criteria?
The company currently pays out 39% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect DOX’s payout to fall to 25% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 2.0%. However, EPS should increase to $3.24, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment.
If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot.
If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock you’re eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view Amdocs 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.
In terms of its peers, Amdocs produces a yield of 1.9%, which is high for IT stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.
Next Steps:
Whilst there are few things you may like about Amdocs from a dividend stock perspective, the truth is that overall it probably is not the best choice for a dividend investor. However, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still offer some interesting investment opportunities. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company’s fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. There are three relevant aspects you should look at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for DOX’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for DOX’s outlook.
Valuation: What is DOX 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 DOX 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.
