Have you been waiting for Restaurant Brands New Zealand Limited’s (NZSE:RBD) upcoming dividend of NZ$0.12 per share? Then you only have to wait 5 more days before the stock pays out on 30 November 2017, and starts trading ex-dividend on the 09 November 2017. So if you want to cash in on RBD’s dividend payment and are not yet a shareholder, you have only few days left! Today I am going to take a look at RBD’s most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. Check out our latest analysis for Restaurant Brands New Zealand

Here’s how I find good dividend stocks

When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:

• 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 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?

Does Restaurant Brands New Zealand pass our checks?

Restaurant Brands New Zealand has a payout ratio of 88.32%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Looking forward, analysts expect RBD to pay out 68.09% of its earnings leading to a dividend yield of 4.10%. Furthermore, EPS should increase to NZ$0.36. This means the company should be able to continue to payout dividends. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Although RBD’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, Restaurant Brands New Zealand produces a yield of 3.46%, which is high for hotels, restaurants and leisure stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? If RBD is in your portfolio for cash-generating reasons, there may be better alternatives out there, preferably ones with a more robust and increasing payout over time. It may be worth exploring other dividend stocks as alternatives to RBD or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I recommend continuing your research by checking out my interactive free list of dividend rockstars as well as high-growth stocks to potentially add to your holdings.

Are you a potential investor? If we were to look at Restaurant Brands New Zealand from a perspective of a dividend stock, there isn’t much to like. On the other hand, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, RBD could still be offering some interesting investment opportunities. I also recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. Dig deeper in our latest free fundmental analysis to explore other aspects of RBD.

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.