Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited (NYSE:NTB) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade takes at least two business day to settle. This means that investors who purchase Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son's shares on or after the 7th of November will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 22nd of November.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.44 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$1.76 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son has a trailing yield of approximately 7.0% on its current stock price of $25.3. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son

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. That's why it's good to see Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son paying out a modest 37% of its earnings.

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?

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. For this reason, we're glad to see Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son's earnings per share have risen 12% per annum 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. Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son has delivered 24% dividend growth per year on average over the past seven years. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.

The Bottom Line

Is Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son worth buying for its dividend? Typically, companies that are growing rapidly and paying out a low fraction of earnings are keeping the profits for reinvestment in the business. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention.

With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son (1 shouldn't be ignored) you should be aware of.

Generally, we wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see. Here's a curated list of interesting stocks that are strong dividend payers.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.