Fluor's Dividend X-Ray

Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool
Updated

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 Fluor (NYS: FLR) , which yields 0.9%.

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 has it grown.

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Fluor Corporation Dividend Chart by YCharts

Fluor's dividend has been stable at $0.13 per quarter for more than four years now.

Immediate safety
To understand how safe a dividend is, we use two 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.

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Fluor Corporation Times Interest Earned TTM Chart by YCharts

At 70.2, Fluor covers every $1 in interest expense with $70 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.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ.

Fluor's payout ratio of 16% is very low and has recently been declining.

Another tool for better investing
 Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies. That's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock-tracking service.

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