Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR): 4 Days To Buy Before The Ex-Dividend Date

Have you been keeping an eye on Spire Inc.'s (NYSE:SR) upcoming dividend of US$0.59 per share payable on the 02 April 2019? Then you only have 4 days left before the stock starts trading ex-dividend on the 08 March 2019. What does this mean for current shareholders and potential investors? Below, I will explain how holding Spire can impact your portfolio income stream, by analysing the stock's most recent financial data and dividend attributes.

Check out our latest analysis for Spire

5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

• Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
• Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?
• Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?
• Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?
• Will the company be able to keep paying dividend based on the future earnings growth?

How does Spire fare?

The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 69%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect SR's payout to remain around the same level at 62% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 3.1%. Moreover, EPS should increase to $3.79.

When assessing the forecast sustainability of a dividend it is also worth considering 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. In the case of SR it has increased its DPS from $1.54 to $2.37 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you'd expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.

In terms of its peers, Spire produces a yield of 3.0%, which is high for Gas Utilities stocks but still below the market's top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Taking into account the dividend metrics, Spire ticks most of the boxes as a strong dividend investment, putting it in my list of top dividend payers. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. There are three essential factors you should look at:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SR’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SR’s outlook.
2. Historical Performance: What has SR's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity.
3. Other 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.