Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) Will Pay A Larger Dividend Than Last Year At US$0.15

Simply Wall St
·3 min read

Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend on the 22nd of October to US$0.15. This will take the dividend yield to an attractive 3.0%, providing a nice boost to shareholder returns.

See our latest analysis for Horizon Bancorp

Horizon Bancorp's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Before making this announcement, Horizon Bancorp was easily earning enough to cover the dividend. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.

EPS is set to fall by 1.9% over the next 12 months. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we believe the payout ratio could be 32%, which we are pretty comfortable with and we think is feasible on an earnings basis.

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historic-dividend

Horizon Bancorp Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. The first annual payment during the last 10 years was US$0.13 in 2011, and the most recent fiscal year payment was US$0.60. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 16% per annum over that time. It is good to see that there has been strong dividend growth, and that there haven't been any cuts for a long time.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Horizon Bancorp has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 19% per annum. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Horizon Bancorp's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

Horizon Bancorp Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, we think this could be an attractive income stock, and it is only getting better by paying a higher dividend this year. The distributions are easily covered by earnings, and there is plenty of cash being generated as well. We should point out that the earnings are expected to fall over the next 12 months, which won't be a problem if this doesn't become a trend, but could cause some turbulence in the next year. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 5 analysts we track are forecasting for Horizon Bancorp for free with public analyst estimates for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high performing dividend stock.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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