Yahoo Finance Only 2 Days Left To LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:LHO)’s Ex-Dividend Date, Is It Worth Buying?
If you are interested in cashing in on LaSalle Hotel Properties’s (NYSE:LHO) upcoming dividend of US$0.23 per share, you only have 2 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 28 June 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 16 July 2018. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into LaSalle Hotel Properties’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. View out our latest analysis for LaSalle Hotel Properties
5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock
When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:
Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?
Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?
Is is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?
How does LaSalle Hotel Properties fare?
Although REITs are expected to payout a high portion of the earnings, LaSalle Hotel Properties currently pays out more than double its net income, meaning that dividend is predominantly funded by retained earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward.
If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Dividend payments from LaSalle Hotel Properties have been volatile in the past 10 years, with some years experiencing significant drops of over 25%. This means that dividend hunters should probably steer clear of the stock, at least for now until the track record improves.
Relative to peers, LaSalle Hotel Properties has a yield of 2.59%, which is on the low-side for REITs stocks.
Next Steps:
Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in LaSalle Hotel Properties for the dividend. On the other hand, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still be offering 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. Below, I’ve compiled three key aspects you should further examine:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for LHO’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for LHO’s outlook.
Valuation: What is LHO 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 LHO 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 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.