Today, we're going to look at a stock that has some problems.  Natural Resource Partners L.P. (NRP) is in the mining industry.  In general, this industry has been doing well.  So what's wrong with NRP?  Well, let's take a look.

Right now, NRP is paying a $1.90 per share annual dividend, or about 5.8% of the current price of the stock.  However, it's the end of November, and its TTM cash flow per share is only $2.18.  Combine that with a low market capitalization (only $1.74B) and weak management effectiveness, and you have a recipe for dividend slashing.  Dividends are a double-edged sword; even if the reasons for cutting the dividend are perfectly valid, if it recedes even a tenth of a percent, the price per share will drop due to investor panic.  From an income investor angle, now is a bad time to invest in this stock.  Investors looking for dividends should wait until the dividend on this stock is slashed.  Once that happens, the stock price will be driven way down, and your percentage gain on the investment will increase drastically, even though the dividend was cut.

The same idea holds for buy-sell investors as well.  NRP fulfills one of the key properties for a good buy, namely, that its current price is closer to the low than to the high.  However, the range of the 52-week low/high is about half the current price, which is decent but not phenomenal, and the P/E ratio is higher than 20.

There are a lot of reasons not to buy this stock now, but it bears watching.  The profitability numbers are excellent, with a 98.4% gross margin and a 50% profit margin.  None of the fundamentals are negative, either.

Bottom line, this stock seems headed for a panic crash when the dividend gets cut, and that's the time to buy.  Keep an eye on NRP and wait for a one-day nosedive.