Yahoo Finance ESSA Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:ESSA): Ex-Dividend Is In 3 Days
Investors who want to cash in on ESSA Bancorp Inc’s (NASDAQ:ESSA) upcoming dividend of US$0.09 per share have only 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 13 September 2018, in time for dividends payable on the 30 September 2018. Is this future income a persuasive enough catalyst for investors to think about ESSA Bancorp as an investment today? Below, I’m going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail.
View our latest analysis for ESSA Bancorp
5 checks you should do on a dividend stock
If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:
Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?
Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?
Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?
Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?
Will the company be able to keep paying dividend based on the future earnings growth?
How does ESSA Bancorp fare?
ESSA Bancorp has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 71.1%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Furthermore, analysts have not forecasted a dividends per share for the future, which makes it hard to determine the yield shareholders should expect, and whether the current payout is sustainable, moving forward.
When considering the sustainability of dividends, it is also worth checking the cash flow of a company. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.
If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock you’re eyeing out is reliable in its payments. In the case of ESSA it has increased its DPS from $0.16 to $0.36 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. These are all positive signs of a great, reliable dividend stock.
In terms of its peers, ESSA Bancorp has a yield of 2.3%, which is on the low-side for Mortgage stocks.
Next Steps:
With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank ESSA 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 recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. I’ve put together three pertinent aspects you should look at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ESSA’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for ESSA’s outlook.
Valuation: What is ESSA 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 ESSA is currently mispriced by the market.
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.
