Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) Has Announced A Dividend Of $0.08

Wabash National Corporation (NYSE:WNC) has announced that it will pay a dividend of $0.08 per share on the 25th of January. Based on this payment, the dividend yield will be 1.4%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

View our latest analysis for Wabash National

Wabash National's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

We like to see a healthy dividend yield, but that is only helpful to us if the payment can continue. Before making this announcement, Wabash National was easily earning enough to cover the dividend. This means that most of what the business earns is being used to help it grow.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 14.9% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could be 8.4%, which we consider to be quite comfortable, with most of the company's earnings left over to grow the business in the future.

Wabash National Doesn't Have A Long Payment History

The dividend's track record has been pretty solid, but with only 7 years of history we want to see a few more years of history before making any solid conclusions. The dividend has gone from an annual total of $0.24 in 2016 to the most recent total annual payment of $0.32. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.2% a year over that time. Wabash National hasn't been paying a dividend for very long, so we wouldn't get to excited about its record of growth just yet.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Some investors will be chomping at the bit to buy some of the company's stock based on its dividend history. Wabash National has impressed us by growing EPS at 21% per year over the past five years. A low payout ratio gives the company a lot of flexibility, and growing earnings also make it very easy for it to grow the dividend.

Wabash National Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

In summary, it is good to see that the dividend is staying consistent, and we don't think there is any reason to suspect this might change over the medium term. The distributions are easily covered by earnings, and there is plenty of cash being generated as well. However, it is worth noting that the earnings are expected to fall over the next year, which may not change the long term outlook, but could affect the dividend payment in the next 12 months. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. To that end, Wabash National has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is potentially serious) we think you should know about. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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