Something To Consider Before Buying AutoCanada Inc. (TSE:ACQ) For The 3.7% Dividend

Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card!

A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. Historically, AutoCanada Inc. (TSE:ACQ) has been paying a dividend to shareholders. Today it yields 3.7%. Does AutoCanada tick all the boxes of a great dividend stock? Below, I'll take you through my analysis.

View our latest analysis for AutoCanada

5 checks you should do on a dividend stock

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 paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?
• Has it increased its dividend per share amount 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 AutoCanada pass our checks?

AutoCanada has a negative payout ratio, which is usually not ideal.

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. Not only have dividend payouts from AutoCanada fallen over the past 10 years, it has also been highly volatile during this time, with drops of over 25% in some years. This means that dividend hunters should probably steer clear of the stock, at least for now until the track record improves.

Compared to its peers, AutoCanada has a yield of 3.7%, which is high for Specialty Retail stocks but still below the market's top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Now you know to keep in mind the reason why investors should be careful investing in AutoCanada for the dividend. On the other hand, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still be offering 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. I've put together three relevant aspects you should further examine:

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

Simply Wall St analyst Simply Wall St and Simply Wall St have no position in any of the companies mentioned. This article is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.