Building My Perfect Dividend Portfolio – Leggett & Platt, Inc. (LEG)

Competition

Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG)’s competitors are a little less well-known as dividend companies, but I looked at Flexsteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLXS), which is currently trading at $24 per share and yields 2.4%. The company has been paying and raising dividends for only two years, the 5-year DGR is 12.1%, and the PE is 12.5. There are no professional analysts who currently cover the company.

The total return over the past twelve months is 47.1%, as the stock has risen from $16 to $23. Its 52-week high is $26.29, which was reached early in March.

I also examined Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC), which has come close to making my list in the past. It is currently trading around $76 per share and yields 2.9%. The company has been paying and raising dividends for 56 years, the 5-year DGR is 6.4%, the EGR is 8.8%, the PE is 18.4 and the payout ratio is 49%. GPC’s total return over the last twelve months is 23.6%.

Genuine Parts is still right there on the cusp of my portfolio; it currently ranks a 16, which means I will keep an eye on it, but it doesn’t make it at this time.

Conclusion

Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG) has many strengths, including good historical dividend growth, an attractive yield, strong future earnings growth prospects, and terrific growth over the past twelve months. The only metric that I am not thrilled with is the payout ratio at 67%, but it is not so high as to be alarming.

It is now the ninth stock in my Perfect Dividend portfolio. Unfortunately, I just missed its ex-dividend date, which was March 13, so I will have to wait another quarter before I can begin collecting its distributions.

I will begin tracking it based on the closing price on the day that this article is syndicated.

The article Building My Perfect Dividend Portfolio – Leggett & Platt originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Karin Hernandez.

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