Does BCB Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BCBP) Have A Place In Your Portfolio?

Over the past 10 years BCB Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:BCBP) has been paying dividends to shareholders. The stock currently pays out a dividend yield of 4.7%, and has a market cap of US$196m. Does BCB Bancorp tick all the boxes of a great dividend stock? Below, I’ll take you through my analysis.

See our latest analysis for BCB Bancorp

How I analyze a dividend stock

When researching a dividend stock, I always follow the following screening criteria:

• Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?

• Has it paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past?

• Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

• Is its earnings sufficient to payout dividend at the current rate?

• Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

NasdaqGM:BCBP Historical Dividend Yield November 2nd 18

How well does BCB Bancorp fit our criteria?

The company currently pays out 71% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting lower payout ratio of 45%, leading to a dividend yield of 4.7%. However, EPS should increase to $1.17, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment.

When assessing the forecast sustainability of a dividend it is also worth considering the cash flow of the business. A business with strong cash flow can sustain a higher divided payout ratio than a company with weak cash flow.

Reliablity is an important factor for dividend stocks, particularly for income investors who want a strong track record of payment and a positive outlook for future payout. In the case of BCBP it has increased its DPS from $0.48 to $0.56 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as you’d expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.

Compared to its peers, BCB Bancorp has a yield of 4.7%, which is high for Banks stocks.

Next Steps:

With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank BCB Bancorp as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. There are three relevant factors you should further research:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for BCBP’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for BCBP’s outlook.

2. Valuation: What is BCBP worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it’s not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether BCBP is currently mispriced by the market.

3. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.