Is Cardinal Energy Ltd. (TSE:CJ) A Smart Choice For Dividend Investors?

A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. Historically, Cardinal Energy Ltd. (TSE:CJ) has been paying a dividend to shareholders. Today it yields 4.4%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let's take a look at Cardinal Energy in more detail.

View our latest analysis for Cardinal Energy

5 checks you should use to assess a dividend stock

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

• 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 it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?
• Is is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
• Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

How well does Cardinal Energy fit our criteria?

The company currently pays out 75% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect CJ's payout to fall to 50% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 4.1%.

If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot.

If there's one type of stock you want to be reliable, it's dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. The reality is that it is too early to consider Cardinal Energy as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 5 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

Relative to peers, Cardinal Energy has a yield of 4.4%, which is on the low-side for Oil and Gas stocks.

Next Steps:

If Cardinal Energy is in your portfolio for cash-generating reasons, there may be better alternatives out there. 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. There are three fundamental aspects you should look at:

1. Valuation: What is CJ 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 CJ is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Cardinal Energy’s board and the CEO’s back ground.
3. Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.