Should Income Investors Buy Great Southern Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:GSBC) Before Its Ex-Dividend?
Important news for shareholders and potential investors in Great Southern Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:GSBC): The dividend payment of $0.24 per share will be distributed into shareholder on 17 January 2018, and the stock will begin trading ex-dividend at an earlier date, 29 December 2017. Investors looking for higher income-generating stocks to add to their portfolio should keep reading, as I take a deeper dive into Great Southern Bancorp’s latest financial data to analyse its dividend attributes. Check out our latest analysis for Great Southern Bancorp
How I analyze a dividend stock
When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:
Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?
Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?
Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Is is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?
How does Great Southern Bancorp fare?
The current payout ratio for the stock is 25.16%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a higher payout ratio of 28.43%, leading to a dividend yield of 1.86%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $3.45 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income. If there’s one type of stock you want to be reliable, it’s dividend stocks and their stable income-generating ability. GSBC has increased its DPS from $0.72 to $0.96 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock. Compared to its peers, Great Southern Bancorp generates a yield of 1.84%, which is on the low-side for banks stocks.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? With Great Southern Bancorp producing strong dividend income for your portfolio over the past few years, you can take comfort in knowing that this stock will still continue to be a robust dividend generator moving forward. However, depending on your current portfolio, it may be worth exploring other dividend stocks to increase diversification, or even look at high-growth stocks to complement your steady income stocks. I recommend continuing your research by checking out my interactive free list of dividend rockstars as well as high-growth stocks to potentially add to your holdings.
Are you a potential investor? With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Great Southern Bancorp as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. As always, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Another aspect to consider for Great Southern Bancorp is how much it’s actually worth. Can you still benefit from a mispricing of the stock? Check our latest free analysis to find out!
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
