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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 Renasant Corporation (NASDAQ:RNST) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 13th of September to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 30th of September.
Renasant's upcoming dividend is US$0.22 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.88 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Renasant stock has a trailing yield of around 2.7% on the current share price of $33.04. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. As a result, readers should always check whether Renasant has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
See our latest analysis for Renasant
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. That's why it's good to see Renasant paying out a modest 29% of its earnings.
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. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. For this reason, we're glad to see Renasant's earnings per share have risen 19% per annum over the last five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, Renasant has increased its dividend at approximately 2.6% a year on average. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because Renasant is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business.
To Sum It Up
Is Renasant an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. Overall, Renasant looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.