Is It Smart To Buy BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend?

Readers hoping to buy BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. If you purchase the stock on or after the 14th of May, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 27th of May.

BOK Financial's next dividend payment will be US$0.52 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$2.08 per share. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, BOK Financial has a trailing yield of approximately 2.3% on its current stock price of $90.97. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

Check out our latest analysis for BOK Financial

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. BOK Financial paid out just 0.1% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances.

Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Fortunately for readers, BOK Financial's earnings per share have been growing at 12% a year for the past five years.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. BOK Financial has delivered 7.6% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Is BOK Financial an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? When companies are growing rapidly and retaining a majority of the profits within the business, it's usually a sign that reinvesting earnings creates more value than paying dividends to shareholders. This strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. In summary, BOK Financial appears to have some promise as a dividend stock, and we'd suggest taking a closer look at it.

While it's tempting to invest in BOK Financial for the dividends alone, you should always be mindful of the risks involved. For example, BOK Financial has 2 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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