Covered, compounding — low yield, steady raises. A 1.23% yield on a 36.3% trailing payout is comfortably covered: $0.56 a quarter, raised from $0.50 in March 2026 after a $0.39-to-$0.50 step in 2025. The yield is low, but the raises are recent and the payout leaves most earnings retained — a data-infrastructure payer held for total return with a real, if small, dividend.
Key risk: Mortgage-volume exposure — credit-report demand rises and falls with home lending, so a housing slowdown hits revenue before it touches the dividend, and data-security history keeps regulatory scrutiny high.
Changes if: The trailing payout pushes past 60%, or mortgage volumes fall long enough to break the recent pattern of raises.
- ✓Payout-coverage check: 36.3% trailing payout — $2.24 indicated against trailing earnings. Well covered, with most earnings retained.
- !Yield check: 1.23% indicated — $0.56/qtr × 4 at the $182.36 close on Oct. 23, 2026. Real, earned cash dividend, but low income for a single stock.
- ✓Dividend growth check: Raised twice since early 2025: $0.39 to $0.50 in February 2025, then $0.50 to $0.56 in March 2026.
What this grade doesn't say: It screens the dividend only — covered, real, compounding. It says nothing about valuation or price: a well-covered payer can still be overpriced, and its price can still fall.