Interested In Flushing Financial's (NASDAQ:FFIC) Upcoming US$0.21 Dividend? You Have Three Days Left

Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 8th of December, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 23rd of December.

Flushing Financial's next dividend payment will be US$0.21 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.84 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Flushing Financial has a trailing yield of approximately 5.6% on its current stock price of $15.01. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. As a result, readers should always check whether Flushing Financial has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for Flushing Financial

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Flushing Financial paid out more than half (55%) of its earnings last year, which is a regular payout ratio for most companies.

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 that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're not enthused to see that Flushing Financial's earnings per share have remained effectively flat over the past five years. It's better than seeing them drop, certainly, but over the long term, all of the best dividend stocks are able to meaningfully grow their earnings per share.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Flushing Financial has delivered 4.9% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years.

To Sum It Up

From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Flushing Financial? Flushing Financial has been struggling to generate growth while also paying out more than half of its earnings to shareholders as dividends. It doesn't appear an outstanding opportunity, but could be worth a closer look.

If you're not too concerned about Flushing Financial's ability to pay dividends, you should still be mindful of some of the other risks that this business faces. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Flushing Financial you should be aware of.

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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