It looks like BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCBP) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is usually set to be one business day before the record date which is the cut-off date on which you must be present on the company's books as a shareholder in order to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is important as the process of settlement involves two full business days. So if you miss that date, you would not show up on the company's books on the record date. In other words, investors can purchase BCB Bancorp's shares before the 2nd of November in order to be eligible for the dividend, which will be paid on the 17th of November.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.16 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$0.64 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, BCB Bancorp has a trailing yield of approximately 6.4% on its current stock price of $9.93. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether BCB Bancorp's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether BCB Bancorp has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for BCB Bancorp

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. That's why it's good to see BCB Bancorp paying out a modest 31% 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?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. It's encouraging to see BCB Bancorp has grown its earnings rapidly, up 22% a year for the past five years.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. BCB Bancorp has delivered an average of 2.9% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. It's good to see both earnings and the dividend have improved - although the former has been rising much quicker than the latter, possibly due to the company reinvesting more of its profits in growth.