Should You Buy First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) For Its Upcoming Dividend?

Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 22nd of April, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 30th of April.

First Busey's next dividend payment will be US$0.23 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.92 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, First Busey stock has a trailing yield of around 3.6% on the current share price of $25.47. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

See our latest analysis for First Busey

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. First Busey paid out a comfortable 48% of its profit last year.

Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.

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

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at First Busey, with earnings per share up 6.8% on average over the last five years.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. First Busey has delivered 6.7% 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.

To Sum It Up

Is First Busey an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? It has been growing its earnings per share somewhat in recent years, although it reinvests more than half its earnings in the business, which could suggest there are some growth projects that have not yet reached fruition. Overall, First Busey looks like a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it would be worth investigating further.

Wondering what the future holds for First Busey? See what the seven analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow

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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