Should Income Investors Buy WesBanco Inc (NASDAQ:WSBC) Before Its Ex-Dividend?

Important news for shareholders and potential investors in WesBanco Inc (NASDAQ:WSBC): The dividend payment of $0.29 per share will be distributed into shareholder on 02 July 2018, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 07 June 2018. Should you diversify into WesBanco and boost your portfolio income stream? Well, keep on reading because today, I’m going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail. View our latest analysis for WesBanco

5 checks you should do on a dividend stock

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

• Is its annual yield among the top 25% of dividend-paying companies?

• Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?

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

• 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?

NasdaqGS:WSBC Historical Dividend Yield Jun 3rd 18

Does WesBanco pass our checks?

The company currently pays out 46.13% 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 WSBC’s payout to fall to 37.28% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 2.53%. However, EPS should increase to $2.95, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. 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. Although WSBC’s per share payments have increased in the past 10 years, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Shareholders would have seen a few years of reduced payments in this time. In terms of its peers, WesBanco produces a yield of 2.46%, which is on the low-side for Banks stocks.

Next Steps:

Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, WesBanco is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Below, I’ve compiled three important factors you should look at:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for WSBC’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for WSBC’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is WSBC 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 WSBC is currently mispriced by the market.

3. Other 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.