What is the dividend cover for RBS?

What is the dividend cover for RBS?

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A reputation as a dependable dividend payer takes years to forge and, once created, is a valuable way for a company to signal its long-term profitability to the market and prospective shareholders. This is why, when it comes to dividend-paying companies such as large cap Banks operator Royal Bank Of Scotland (LON:RBS), which yields 3.91%, it is useful to check how well these payments are covered by earnings.

Earnings per share divided by dividend per share is called dividend cover - and it’s a great way to quickly gauge a company’s capacity to continue its dividend payments

How to interpret Royal Bank Of Scotland’s dividend cover

Generally speaking, a dividend cover of below 1.5 times is cause for concern. Above 1.5 is good, but it is when you are getting above two times cover that you see the sign of a high-quality, sustainable dividend payment. Let’s see how Royal Bank Of Scotland measures up.

The group’s trailing twelve month (TTM) earnings per share are 0.29 and its TTM dividend per share is 0.050. Dividing the former by the latter shows that Royal Bank Of Scotland has a TTM dividend cover of 5.18.

This is a positive sign for shareholders of Royal Bank Of Scotland. Other checks you can perform to assess dividend safety include:

  • Checking the current ratio is above 1.5 times and preferably above 2x
  • Making sure dividend per share is covered by free cash flow per share
  • Assessing balance sheet health by looking at the group’s gearing ratio

Income investing: what you need to know

For many investors, dividends are a vital part of their long-term strategy. That's why we have created a variety of income-focused stock screens, such as the Best Dividends Screen, to identify promising candidates for income portfolios. Take a look and see if any of the qualifying stocks might be worthy of further research.

If you’d like to discover more about dividend investing, you can read our free ebook: How to Make Money in Dividend Stocks.


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