Yahoo Finance Here's What We Like About First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIN)'s Upcoming Dividend
First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIN) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 13th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 1st of October.
First Financial Bankshares's upcoming dividend is US$0.12 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.48 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, First Financial Bankshares stock has a trailing yield of around 1.6% on the current share price of $30.65. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether First Financial Bankshares's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for First Financial Bankshares
Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. First Financial Bankshares paid out a comfortable 37% 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 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 decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Fortunately for readers, First Financial Bankshares's earnings per share have been growing at 14% a year for the past five years.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. First Financial Bankshares has delivered 7.8% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.
The Bottom Line
From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid First Financial Bankshares? 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. This is one of the most attractive investment combinations under this analysis, as it can create substantial value for investors over the long run. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating First Financial Bankshares more closely.
Curious what other investors think of First Financial Bankshares? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow .
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
