The board of PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 31st of May, with investors receiving US$0.25 per share. This means the dividend yield will be fairly typical at 3.0%.
While the dividend yield is important for income investors, it is also important to consider any large share price moves, as this will generally outweigh any gains from distributions. PacWest Bancorp's stock price has reduced by 32% in the last 3 months, which is not ideal for investors and can explain a sharp increase in the dividend yield.
View our latest analysis for PacWest Bancorp
PacWest Bancorp's Earnings Easily Cover the Distributions
Solid dividend yields are great, but they only really help us if the payment is sustainable. However, PacWest Bancorp's earnings easily cover the dividend. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.
EPS is set to fall by 5.7% over the next 12 months. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could be 21%, which we consider to be quite comfortable, with most of the company's earnings left over to grow the business in the future.
Dividend Volatility
While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. Since 2012, the dividend has gone from US$0.04 to US$1.00. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 38% per annum over that time. It is great to see strong growth in the dividend payments, but cuts are concerning as it may indicate the payout policy is too ambitious.
The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow
Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. PacWest Bancorp has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 12% per annum. PacWest Bancorp definitely has the potential to grow its dividend in the future with earnings on an uptrend and a low payout ratio.
PacWest Bancorp Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock
In summary, it is good to see that the dividend is staying consistent, and we don't think there is any reason to suspect this might change over the medium term. The company is generating plenty of cash, and the earnings also quite easily cover the distributions. We should point out that the earnings are expected to fall over the next 12 months, which won't be a problem if this doesn't become a trend, but could cause some turbulence in the next year. All of these factors considered, we think this has solid potential as a dividend stock.