County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICBK) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 3 days time. You can purchase shares before the 5th of September in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 20th of September.

County Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.05 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.20 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, County Bancorp has a trailing yield of approximately 1.2% on its current stock price of $17.3. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether County Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

Check out our latest analysis for County Bancorp

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. County Bancorp is paying out just 12% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events.

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?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. This is why it's a relief to see County Bancorp earnings per share are up 6.4% 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. Since the start of our data, 5 years ago, County Bancorp has lifted its dividend by approximately 4.6% a year on average. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Is County Bancorp worth buying for its dividend? It has been growing its earnings per share somewhat in recent years, although it reinvests more than half its earnings in the business, which could suggest there are some growth projects that have not yet reached fruition. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating County Bancorp more closely.