A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. Over the past 10 years, Independent Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:IBCP) has returned an average of 2.00% per year to shareholders in terms of dividend yield. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Let’s take a look at Independent Bank in more detail. View our latest analysis for Independent Bank

5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock

When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:

• Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer?

• Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?

• Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?

• Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

• Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

How well does Independent Bank fit our criteria?

Independent Bank has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 43.75%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect IBCP’s payout to fall to 30.71% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 2.36%. However, EPS should increase to $1.6, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment. If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock you’re eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Not only have dividend payouts from Independent Bank fallen over the past 10 years, it has also been highly volatile during this time, with drops of over 25% in some years. This means that dividend hunters should probably steer clear of the stock, at least for now until the track record improves. Relative to peers, Independent Bank generates a yield of 2.50%, which is on the low-side for Banks stocks.

Next Steps:

If Independent Bank is in your portfolio for cash-generating reasons, there may be better alternatives out there. But if you are not exclusively a dividend investor, the stock could still be an interesting investment opportunity. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. I’ve put together three fundamental factors you should further research:

• Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for IBCP’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for IBCP’s outlook.

• Valuation: What is IBCP worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it’s not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether IBCP is currently mispriced by the market.

• Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.