Attention dividend hunters! Harbour Centre Development Limited (HKG:51) will be distributing its dividend of HK$0.07 per share on the 07 September 2018, and will start trading ex-dividend in 2 days time on the 17 August 2018. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about Harbour Centre Development as an investment today? Below, I’m going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail.

Check out our latest analysis for Harbour Centre Development

5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock

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

• Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?

• Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?

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

How well does Harbour Centre Development fit our criteria?

Harbour Centre Development has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 39.81%, 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.

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. Although 51’s per share payments have increased in the past 10 years, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Investors have seen reductions in the dividend per share in the past, although, it has picked up again.

Relative to peers, Harbour Centre Development generates a yield of 4.20%, which is high for Real Estate stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

If Harbour Centre Development is in your portfolio for cash-generating reasons, there may be better alternatives out there. 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. Below, I’ve compiled three relevant aspects you should look at:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 51’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 51’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is 51 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 51 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.