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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 Alerus Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ALRS) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 19th of December to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 10th of January.
Alerus Financial's next dividend payment will be US$0.15 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.56 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Alerus Financial has a trailing yield of 2.6% on the current stock price of $22.83. 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! We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
See our latest analysis for Alerus Financial
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Alerus Financial paid out a comfortable 28% 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 business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Alerus Financial, with earnings per share up 5.3% on average over the last five years.
We'd also point out that Alerus Financial issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend while issuing large amounts of new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Alerus Financial has delivered 7.9% dividend growth per year on average over the past ten years. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.
The Bottom Line
From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Alerus Financial? Alerus Financial has seen its earnings per share grow slowly in recent years, and the company reinvests more than half of its profits in the business, which generally bodes well for its future prospects. Alerus Financial ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention.