Advertisement

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) Has Affirmed Its Dividend Of $0.34

The board of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 15th of February, with investors receiving $0.34 per share. This means the annual payment is 4.0% of the current stock price, which is above the average for the industry.

View our latest analysis for Sandy Spring Bancorp

Sandy Spring Bancorp's Payment Expected To Have Solid Earnings Coverage

Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained.

Having distributed dividends for at least 10 years, Sandy Spring Bancorp has a long history of paying out a part of its earnings to shareholders. Taking data from its last earnings report, calculating for the company's payout ratio shows 37%, which means that Sandy Spring Bancorp would be able to pay its last dividend without pressure on the balance sheet.

Looking forward, EPS is forecast to rise by 12.1% over the next 3 years. Analysts estimate the future payout ratio will be 35% over the same time period, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.

historic-dividend
historic-dividend

Sandy Spring Bancorp Has A Solid Track Record

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. Since 2013, the annual payment back then was $0.48, compared to the most recent full-year payment of $1.36. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 11% per annum over that time. So, dividends have been growing pretty quickly, and even more impressively, they haven't experienced any notable falls during this period.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. We are encouraged to see that Sandy Spring Bancorp has grown earnings per share at 11% per year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Sandy Spring Bancorp's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think Sandy Spring Bancorp might even raise payments in the future. The company is easily earning enough to cover its dividend payments and it is great to see that these earnings are being translated into cash flow. All of these factors considered, we think this has solid potential as a dividend stock.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. 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 3 analysts we track are forecasting for Sandy Spring 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 yield dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

Join A Paid User Research Session
You’ll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here