Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GCBC) Passed Our Checks, And It's About To Pay A US$0.12 Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GCBC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. You can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 31st of August.
Greene County Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.12 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.48 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Greene County Bancorp has a trailing yield of approximately 2.2% on its current stock price of $21.62. 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 check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.
View our latest analysis for Greene County Bancorp
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Greene County Bancorp has a low and conservative payout ratio of just 20% of its income after tax.
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 how much of its profit Greene County Bancorp paid out over the last 12 months.
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. It's encouraging to see Greene County Bancorp has grown its earnings rapidly, up 21% a year for the past five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Greene County Bancorp has delivered 3.5% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because Greene County Bancorp is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business.
To Sum It Up
Has Greene County Bancorp got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? When companies are growing rapidly and retaining a majority of the profits within the business, it's usually a sign that reinvesting earnings creates more value than paying dividends to shareholders. This strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. Greene County Bancorp 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.
Want to learn more about Greene County Bancorp? Here's a visualisation of its historical rate of revenue and earnings growth.
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.
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. 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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