Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. The ex-dividend date occurs one day before the record date which is the day on which shareholders need to be on the company's books in order to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Meaning, you will need to purchase Kearny Financial's shares before the 7th of November to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 22nd of November.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.11 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.44 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Kearny Financial stock has a trailing yield of around 6.2% on the current share price of $7.06. 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 Kearny Financial can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for Kearny Financial

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Its dividend payout ratio is 83% of profit, which means the company is paying out a majority of its earnings. The relatively limited profit reinvestment could slow the rate of future earnings growth. We'd be concerned if earnings began to decline.

When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.

Click here to see how much of its profit Kearny Financial paid out over the last 12 months.

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. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see Kearny Financial's earnings per share have risen 18% 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. In the past eight years, Kearny Financial has increased its dividend at approximately 24% a year on average. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.