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It looks like BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. Accordingly, BankUnited investors that purchase the stock on or after the 13th of January will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of January.
The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.23 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.92 per share to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that BankUnited has a trailing yield of 2.0% on the current share price of $46.37. 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! As a result, readers should always check whether BankUnited has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
View our latest analysis for BankUnited
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. BankUnited is paying out just 23% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events.
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 the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
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. For this reason, we're glad to see BankUnited's earnings per share have risen 12% 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. In the past 10 years, BankUnited has increased its dividend at approximately 5.1% a year on average. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because BankUnited is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business.