Have you been keeping an eye on Monash IVF Group Limited’s (ASX:MVF) upcoming dividend of AU$0.026 per share payable on the 12 October 2018? Then you only have 2 days left before the stock starts trading ex-dividend on the 06 September 2018. Should you diversify into Monash IVF Group 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.

See our latest analysis for Monash IVF Group

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

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

• Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?

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

• Will the company be able to keep paying dividend based on the future earnings growth?

How does Monash IVF Group fare?

The company currently pays out 66.1% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a payout ratio of 69.9%, leading to a dividend yield of around 5.2%. Furthermore, EPS is forecasted to fall to A$0.088 in the upcoming year.

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. The reality is that it is too early to consider Monash IVF Group as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 4 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

Relative to peers, Monash IVF Group generates a yield of 4.9%, which is high for Biotechs stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

If you are building an income portfolio, then Monash IVF Group is a complicated choice since it has some positive aspects as well as negative ones. 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 urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. I’ve put together three essential aspects you should further research:

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

2. Valuation: What is MVF 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 MVF 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 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.