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Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see OP Bancorp (NASDAQ:OPBK) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 10th of February will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 25th of February.
OP Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.07 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.28 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that OP Bancorp has a trailing yield of 3.4% on the current share price of $8.26. 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.
See our latest analysis for OP Bancorp
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. OP Bancorp paid out a comfortable 32% of its profit last year.
Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.
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. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see OP Bancorp's earnings per share have risen 14% 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 two years, OP Bancorp has increased its dividend at approximately 18% a year on average. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.
To Sum It Up
Has OP 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. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. Overall, OP Bancorp looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.