National Bankshares (NASDAQ:NKSH) Is Increasing Its Dividend To US$0.72

The board of National Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKSH) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend by 2.9% on the 1st of June to US$0.72. This takes the dividend yield from 4.4% to 4.4%, which shareholders will be pleased with.

Check out our latest analysis for National Bankshares

National Bankshares' Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. Based on the last payment, National Bankshares was quite comfortably earning enough to cover the dividend. This indicates that quite a large proportion of earnings is being invested back into the business.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to fall by 0.4%. If the dividend continues along the path it has been on recently, we estimate the payout ratio could be 45%, which is comfortable for the company to continue in the future.

National Bankshares Has A Solid Track Record

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. The first annual payment during the last 10 years was US$0.96 in 2012, and the most recent fiscal year payment was US$1.44. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 4.1% over that duration. Although we can't deny that the dividend has been remarkably stable in the past, the growth has been pretty muted.

We Could See National Bankshares' Dividend Growing

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. We are encouraged to see that National Bankshares has grown earnings per share at 9.8% per year over the past five years. Since earnings per share is growing at an acceptable rate, and the payout policy is balanced, we think the company is positioning itself well to grow earnings and dividends in the future.

National Bankshares Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

In summary, it is always positive to see the dividend being increased, and we are particularly pleased with its overall sustainability. The distributions are easily covered by earnings, and there is plenty of cash being generated as well. We should point out that the earnings are expected to fall over the next 12 months, which won't be a problem if this doesn't become a trend, but could cause some turbulence in the next year. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. As an example, we've identified 1 warning sign for National Bankshares that you should be aware of before investing. Is National Bankshares not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.

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