Investors who want to cash in on Brookfield Renewable Partners LP.’s (NYSE:BEP) upcoming dividend of $0.49 per share have only 6 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 27 February 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 29 March 2018. Should you diversify into Brookfield Renewable Partners 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 Brookfield Renewable Partners

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 it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?

• 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 well does Brookfield Renewable Partners fit our criteria?

The company currently pays out more than double of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing trailing twelve-month data, meaning that the dividend is predominantly funded by retained earnings. Furthermore, analysts are forecasting the payout ratio to remain at this high level going forward, leading to a future of uncertainty around the stability of BEP’s dividend income. 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. In the case of BEP it has increased its DPS from $1.25 to $2.45 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes BEP a true dividend rockstar. In terms of its peers, Brookfield Renewable Partners generates a yield of 6.02%, which is high for Renewable Energy stocks.

Next Steps:

With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Brookfield Renewable Partners 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, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. There are three relevant aspects you should further examine:

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

• 2. Valuation: What is BEP 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 BEP 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.