Southern Missouri Bancorp (NASDAQ:SMBC) Has Announced A Dividend Of $0.21
The board of Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 31st of August, with investors receiving $0.21 per share. Including this payment, the dividend yield on the stock will be 1.8%, which is a modest boost for shareholders' returns.
See our latest analysis for Southern Missouri Bancorp
Southern Missouri Bancorp's Earnings Will Easily Cover The Distributions
While yield is important, another factor to consider about a company's dividend is whether the current payout levels are feasible.
Having distributed dividends for at least 10 years, Southern Missouri Bancorp has a long history of paying out a part of its earnings to shareholders. While past data isn't a guarantee for the future, Southern Missouri Bancorp's latest earnings report puts its payout ratio at 22%, showing that the company can pay out its dividends comfortably.
Looking forward, EPS is forecast to rise by 35.6% over the next 3 years. The future payout ratio could be 19% over that time period, according to analyst estimates, which is a good look for the future of the dividend.
Southern Missouri Bancorp Has A Solid Track Record
Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. The annual payment during the last 10 years was $0.30 in 2013, and the most recent fiscal year payment was $0.84. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 11% a year over that time. Rapidly growing dividends for a long time is a very valuable feature for an income stock.
Southern Missouri Bancorp Could Grow Its Dividend
The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. It's encouraging to see that Southern Missouri Bancorp has been growing its earnings per share at 7.3% a year over the past five years. Southern Missouri Bancorp definitely has the potential to grow its dividend in the future with earnings on an uptrend and a low payout ratio.
An additional note is that the company has been raising capital by issuing stock equal to 23% of shares outstanding in the last 12 months. Regularly doing this can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created.
Southern Missouri Bancorp Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock
Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think Southern Missouri Bancorp might even raise payments in the future. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For example, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Southern Missouri Bancorp that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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