Be Sure To Check Out Cortland Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLDB) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend

It looks like Cortland Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLDB) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 1st of September.

Cortland Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.14 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.61 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Cortland Bancorp has a trailing yield of 4.4% on the current stock price of $13.99. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

View our latest analysis for Cortland Bancorp

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. That's why it's good to see Cortland Bancorp paying out a modest 30% 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 how much of its profit Cortland Bancorp paid out over the last 12 months.

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. 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 Cortland Bancorp's earnings per share have risen 14% per annum over the last five years.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the past eight years, Cortland Bancorp has increased its dividend at approximately 23% a year on average. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.

Final Takeaway

From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Cortland Bancorp? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. This is one of the most attractive investment combinations under this analysis, as it can create substantial value for investors over the long run. Overall, Cortland Bancorp looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.

On that note, you'll want to research what risks Cortland Bancorp is facing. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Cortland Bancorp you should be aware of.

If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top 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.

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