On the 28 February 2018, Watkin Jones Plc (AIM:WJG) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of £0.04 per share. However, investors must have bought the company’s stock before 25 January 2018 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 3 days left! Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about Watkin Jones 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. View our latest analysis for Watkin Jones

5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock

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

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

• Is is able 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 Watkin Jones fit our criteria?

The company currently pays out 47.06% of its earnings as a dividend, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a payout ratio of 48.87%, leading to a dividend yield of 3.75%. In addition to this, EPS should increase to £0.15. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. Unfortunately, it is really too early to view Watkin Jones as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 2 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record. Relative to peers, Watkin Jones produces a yield of 3.16%, which is high for real estate stocks but still below the market’s top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Taking all the above into account, Watkin Jones is a complicated pick for dividend investors given that there are a couple of positive things about it as well as negative. 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 urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Below, I’ve compiled three key factors you should look at:

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