East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Looks Interesting, And It's About To Pay A Dividend
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 30th of October, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 16th of November.
East West Bancorp's next dividend payment will be US$0.28 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$1.10 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, East West Bancorp stock has a trailing yield of around 2.9% on the current share price of $38.36. 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! So we need to investigate whether East West Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
Check out our latest analysis for East West Bancorp
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. Fortunately East West Bancorp's payout ratio is modest, at just 27% of profit.
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. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. For this reason, we're glad to see East West Bancorp's earnings per share have risen 11% per annum over the last five years.
The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, East West Bancorp has lifted its dividend by approximately 39% 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.
The Bottom Line
Is East West Bancorp worth buying for its dividend? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating East West Bancorp more closely.
Curious what other investors think of East West Bancorp? 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.
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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