Origin Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OBNK) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. This means that investors who purchase Origin Bancorp's shares on or after the 12th of May will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of May.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.15 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.60 per share to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Origin Bancorp has a trailing yield of 2.1% on the current share price of $28.05. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Origin Bancorp's dividend is reliable and sustainable. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.

View our latest analysis for Origin Bancorp

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Origin Bancorp has a low and conservative payout ratio of just 19% of its income after tax.

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 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. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. It's encouraging to see Origin Bancorp has grown its earnings rapidly, up 42% a year for the past five years.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the past five years, Origin Bancorp has increased its dividend at approximately 36% 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.

Final Takeaway

Should investors buy Origin Bancorp for the upcoming dividend? When companies are growing rapidly and retaining a majority of the profits within the business, it's usually a sign that reinvesting earnings creates more value than paying dividends to shareholders. This strategy can add significant value to shareholders over the long term - as long as it's done without issuing too many new shares. Origin Bancorp 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.