In This Article:
Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that First Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:THFF) is about to go ex-dividend in just four 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. In other words, investors can purchase First Financial's shares before the 6th of January in order to be eligible for the dividend, which will be paid on the 14th of January.
The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.63 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$1.06 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, First Financial has a trailing yield of 2.3% on the current stock price of $45.29. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for First Financial
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. First Financial 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?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. 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 First Financial's earnings per share have risen 15% per annum over the last five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last 10 years, First Financial has lifted its dividend by approximately 1.2% a year on average. It's good to see both earnings and the dividend have improved - although the former has been rising much quicker than the latter, possibly due to the company reinvesting more of its profits in growth.