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Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) 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 31st of August.
Southern Missouri Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.15 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.60 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Southern Missouri Bancorp has a trailing yield of 2.6% on the current share price of $22.7. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Southern Missouri Bancorp
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Southern Missouri Bancorp paid out just 19% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.
When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. For this reason, we're glad to see Southern Missouri Bancorp's earnings per share have risen 15% per annum over the last five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Southern Missouri Bancorp has delivered an average of 9.6% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.
To Sum It Up
Should investors buy Southern Missouri Bancorp for the upcoming dividend? Companies like Southern Missouri 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, Southern Missouri Bancorp appears to have some promise as a dividend stock, and we'd suggest taking a closer look at it.