Shares of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc (NYSE:OPY) will begin trading ex-dividend in 2 days. To qualify for the dividend check of $0.11 per share, investors must have owned the shares prior to 10 May 2018, which is the last day the company’s management will finalize their list of shareholders to which they will send dividend payments. What does this mean for current shareholders and potential investors? Below, I will explain how holding Oppenheimer Holdings can impact your portfolio income stream, by analysing the stock’s most recent financial data and dividend attributes. See our latest analysis for Oppenheimer Holdings

Here’s how I find good dividend stocks

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

• 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 it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

• Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?

• Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

How does Oppenheimer Holdings fare?

The company currently pays out 17.18% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently 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 is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it’s dividend stocks and their constant income stream. The reality facing OPY investors is that whilst it has continued to pay shareholders dividend, there has not been any increase in the level of dividends paid in the past decade. Though this may not be a serious red flag, strong dividend stocks should always strive to increase its payout over time. Compared to its peers, Oppenheimer Holdings has a yield of 1.57%, which is on the low-side for Capital Markets stocks.

Next Steps:

If you are building an income portfolio, then Oppenheimer Holdings is a complicated choice since it has some positive aspects as well as negative ones. However, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still offer some interesting investment opportunities. 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 key factors you should further examine:

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

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

3. 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.