In This Article:
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Timberland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSBK) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. Investors can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of August.
Timberland Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.20 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.80 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Timberland Bancorp has a trailing yield of 4.7% on the current share price of $16.94. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Timberland Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
Check out our latest analysis for Timberland Bancorp
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Timberland Bancorp paid out just 24% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.
Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.
Click here to see how much of its profit Timberland Bancorp paid out over the last 12 months.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. It's encouraging to see Timberland Bancorp has grown its earnings rapidly, up 29% a year for the past five years.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Timberland Bancorp has delivered 21% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.
The Bottom Line
Is Timberland Bancorp an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Companies like Timberland Bancorp that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings, are usually reinvesting heavily in their business. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. In summary, Timberland Bancorp appears to have some promise as a dividend stock, and we'd suggest taking a closer look at it.