On the 09 May 2018, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Ltd (SGX:K11) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of SGD0.04 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 25 April 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 2 days left! Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. View our latest analysis for Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation

5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock

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

• Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?

• Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?

• Has it increased its dividend per share amount 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 Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation fare?

Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 39.12%, which means that the dividend is covered by 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. Not only have dividend payouts from Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation fallen over the past 10 years, it has also been highly volatile during this time, with drops of over 25% in some years. This means that dividend hunters should probably steer clear of the stock, at least for now until the track record improves. In terms of its peers, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation produces a yield of 2.26%, which is on the low-side for Logistics stocks.

Next Steps:

After digging a little deeper into Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation’s yield, it’s easy to see why you should be cautious investing in the company just for the dividend. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. Below, I’ve compiled three key aspects you should further research: