Yahoo Finance Only 4 Days Left Before Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE:LVS) Will Be Trading Ex-Dividend,
If you are interested in cashing in on Las Vegas Sands Corp’s (NYSE:LVS) upcoming dividend of US$0.75 per share, you only have 4 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 18 September 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 27 September 2018. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about Las Vegas Sands as an investment today? Below, 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 Las Vegas Sands
How I analyze a dividend stock
If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:
Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?
Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?
Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?
Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?
How does Las Vegas Sands fare?
The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 61.7%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect LVS’s payout to increase to 83.6% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 5.1%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $3.92 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income.
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. Cash flow is important because companies with strong cash flow can usually sustain higher payout ratios.
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. The reality is that it is too early to consider Las Vegas Sands as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 7 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.
Relative to peers, Las Vegas Sands produces a yield of 4.9%, which is high for Hospitality stocks.
Next Steps:
With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Las Vegas Sands as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. 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 important aspects you should further examine:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for LVS’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for LVS’s outlook.
Valuation: What is LVS 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 LVS is currently mispriced by the market.
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 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.
