Attention dividend hunters! Panther Securities PLC (AIM:PNS) will be distributing its dividend of £0.05 per share in 3 days time, on the 29 November 2017, and will start trading ex-dividend on the 09 November 2017. What does this mean for current shareholders and potential investors? Below, I will explain how holding PNS can impact your portfolio income stream, by analysing the stock’s most recent financial data and dividend attributes. Check out our latest analysis for Panther Securities

5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

• Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer?

• 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?

• Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?

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

Does Panther Securities pass our checks?

Panther Securities has a payout ratio of 25.60%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect to see 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. The reality facing PNS 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. However, income investors that value stability over growth may still find PNS appealing. In terms of its peers, PNS has a yield of 4.31%, which is high for real estate management and development stocks.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? If PNS 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 beneficial exploring other income stocks as alternatives to PNS or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I suggest continuing your research by taking a look at 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 Panther Securities 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, PNS 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 PNS.

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.