Mercantile Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:MBWM) Looks Interesting, And It's About To Pay A Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Mercantile Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:MBWM) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 5th of March to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 18th of March.
Mercantile Bank's next dividend payment will be US$0.28 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$1.12 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Mercantile Bank has a trailing yield of 3.9% on the current stock price of $28.68. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether Mercantile Bank can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
View our latest analysis for Mercantile Bank
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. That's why it's good to see Mercantile Bank paying out a modest 35% of its earnings.
Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. For this reason, we're glad to see Mercantile Bank's earnings per share have risen 19% per annum over the last five years.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Mercantile Bank has delivered 40% dividend growth per year on average over the past ten years. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.
Final Takeaway
Is Mercantile Bank an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Companies like Mercantile Bank that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings, are usually reinvesting heavily in their business. This is one of the most attractive investment combinations under this analysis, as it can create substantial value for investors over the long run. Mercantile Bank ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention.
Wondering what the future holds for Mercantile Bank? See what the five analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.