Not all dividends are created equal. Here, we'll do a top-to-bottom analysis of a given company to understand the quality of its dividend and how that's changed over the past five years.
The company we're looking at today is Hawaiian Electric
Industry
Hawaiian Electric is an electric utility. When the electricity market went through deregulation, utilities had to choose between being distributors or producers. Hawaiian's electricity is sold in a largely regulated market. Since the company is largely regulated, the stock is stable like the average utility company.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Total Return Price Chart by YCharts
Dividend
To evaluate the quality of a dividend, the first thing to consider is whether the company has paid a dividend consistently over the past five years, and, if so, how much it has grown.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Dividend Chart by YCharts
Hawaiian Electric's dividend has been stable at $0.31 per quarter for the past five years.
Immediate safety
To understand how safe a dividend is, we use three crucial tools, the first of which is:
- The interest coverage ratio, or the number of times interest is earned, which is calculated by earnings before interest and taxes, divided by interest expense. The interest coverage ratio measures a company's ability to pay the interest on its debt. A ratio less than 1.5 is questionable; a number less than 1 means the company is not bringing in enough money to cover its interest expenses.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Times Interest Earned TTM Chart by YCharts
Hawaiian Electric covers every $1 in interest expense with $3 in operating earnings.
Sustainability
The other tool we use to evaluate the safety of a dividend is:
- The EPS payout ratio, or dividends per share divided by earnings per share. The EPS payout ratio measures the percentage of earnings that go toward paying the dividend. A ratio greater than 80% is worrisome.
Source: S&P Capital IQ.
Hawaiian Electric's payout ratio went way up during the recession but since then has been steadily falling the past two years to its current 91%.
Alternatives
Source: S&P Capital IQ.
There are some alternatives in the industry. PPL
Another tool for better investing
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- Add Hawaiian Electric to My Watchlist.
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