Washington Federal (NASDAQ:WAFD) Has Announced A Dividend Of US$0.24

The board of Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 3rd of June, with investors receiving US$0.24 per share. This means the dividend yield will be fairly typical at 3.1%.

See our latest analysis for Washington Federal

Washington Federal's Earnings Easily Cover the Distributions

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. However, prior to this announcement, Washington Federal's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that most of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 18.7%. If the dividend continues on this path, the payout ratio could be 30% by next year, which we think can be pretty sustainable going forward.

Washington Federal Has A Solid Track Record

The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. The first annual payment during the last 10 years was US$0.24 in 2012, and the most recent fiscal year payment was US$0.96. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 15% per annum over that time. We can see that payments have shown some very nice upward momentum without faltering, which provides some reassurance that future payments will also be reliable.

Washington Federal Could Grow Its Dividend

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 Washington Federal has grown earnings per share at 8.3% per year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Washington Federal's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

We Really Like Washington Federal's Dividend

Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think Washington Federal might even raise payments in the future. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 3 analysts we track are forecasting for Washington Federal for free with public analyst estimates for the company. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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