Should You Buy Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) For Its Upcoming Dividend?

Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. You can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 31st of August.

Southern Missouri Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.15 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.60 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Southern Missouri Bancorp stock has a trailing yield of around 2.6% on the current share price of $22.7. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Southern Missouri Bancorp's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

Check out our latest analysis for Southern Missouri Bancorp

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Southern Missouri Bancorp paid out just 19% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.

Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. Fortunately for readers, Southern Missouri Bancorp's earnings per share have been growing at 15% a year for the past 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, Southern Missouri Bancorp has increased its dividend at approximately 9.6% a year on average. 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

Is Southern Missouri Bancorp an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? 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 strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. Southern Missouri Bancorp 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.

In light of that, while Southern Missouri Bancorp has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Southern Missouri Bancorp you should be aware of.

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.

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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.