Arrow Financial (NASDAQ:AROW) Will Pay A Dividend Of US$0.26

Arrow Financial Corporation's (NASDAQ:AROW) investors are due to receive a payment of US$0.26 per share on 15th of September. This payment means that the dividend yield will be 2.9%, which is around the industry average.

View our latest analysis for Arrow Financial

Arrow Financial's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

We aren't too impressed by dividend yields unless they can be sustained over time. However, prior to this announcement, Arrow Financial's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to fall by 3.3%. If the dividend continues along the path it has been on recently, we estimate the payout ratio could be 34%, which is comfortable for the company to continue in the future.

Arrow Financial Has A Solid Track Record

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. Since 2011, the dividend has gone from US$0.77 to US$1.04. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 3.0% over that duration. Slow and steady dividend growth might not sound that exciting, but dividends have been stable for ten years, which we think makes this a fairly attractive offer.

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 Arrow Financial has grown earnings per share at 14% per year over the past five years. Growth in EPS bodes well for the dividend, as does the low payout ratio that the company is currently reporting.

We Really Like Arrow Financial's Dividend

In summary, it is good to see that the dividend is staying consistent, and we don't think there is any reason to suspect this might change over the medium term. The company is generating plenty of cash, and the earnings also quite easily cover the distributions. However, it is worth noting that the earnings are expected to fall over the next year, which may not change the long term outlook, but could affect the dividend payment in the next 12 months. All of these factors considered, we think this has solid potential as a dividend stock.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. For example, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Arrow Financial that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high performing dividend stock.

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