Read This Before Buying Maintel Holdings Plc (LON:MAI) For Its Upcoming £0.19 Dividend

Shares of Maintel Holdings Plc (AIM:MAI) will begin trading ex-dividend in 3 days. To qualify for the dividend check of £0.19 per share, investors must have owned the shares prior to 29 March 2018, which is the last day the company's management will finalize their list of shareholders to which they will send dividend payments. Is this future income stream a compelling catalyst for dividend investors to think about the stock as an investment today? Let's take a look at Maintel Holdings's most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail. View our latest analysis for Maintel Holdings

How I analyze a dividend stock

Whenever I am looking at a potential dividend stock investment, I always check these five metrics:

• Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
• 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 it 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 Maintel Holdings fit our criteria?

The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for MAI is 155.70%, which means that the dividend is not well-covered by its earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect MAI's payout to fall into a more sustainable range of 40.00% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 4.52%. Furthermore, EPS should increase to £0.52, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it's dividend stocks and their constant income stream. In the case of MAI it has increased its DPS from £0.06 to £0.34 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes MAI a true dividend rockstar. Compared to its peers, Maintel Holdings produces a yield of 4.25%, which is high for Commercial Services stocks.

Next Steps:

With this in mind, I definitely rank Maintel Holdings as a strong dividend stock, and makes it worth further research for anyone who likes steady income generation from their portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company's fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. I've put together three pertinent aspects you should further research:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for MAI’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for MAI’s outlook.
2. Valuation: What is MAI 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 MAI is currently mispriced by the market.
3. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

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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.