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Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:LBAI) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. The ex-dividend date occurs one day before the record date which is the day on which shareholders need to be on the company's books in order to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade takes at least two business day to settle. This means that investors who purchase Lakeland Bancorp's shares on or after the 4th of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 16th of August.
The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.14 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.58 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Lakeland Bancorp has a trailing yield of approximately 3.7% on its current stock price of $15.67. 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 Lakeland Bancorp has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
See our latest analysis for Lakeland Bancorp
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Lakeland Bancorp paid out a comfortable 36% of its profit last year.
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 how much of its profit Lakeland Bancorp paid out over the last 12 months.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Lakeland Bancorp, with earnings per share up 7.7% on average 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. Lakeland Bancorp has delivered an average of 8.1% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. 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.