Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GCBC) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 4 days. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. It is important to be aware of the ex-dividend date because any trade on the stock needs to have been settled on or before the record date. This means that investors who purchase Greene County Bancorp's shares on or after the 14th of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of August.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.11 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.40 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Greene County Bancorp stock has a trailing yield of around 1.2% on the current share price of US$34.57. 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 Greene County Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Greene County Bancorp is paying out just 17% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events.

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 Greene County Bancorp 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. Fortunately for readers, Greene County Bancorp's earnings per share have been growing at 11% a year for the past five years.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the last 10 years, Greene County Bancorp has lifted its dividend by approximately 8.0% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Is Greene County Bancorp worth buying for its 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. Perhaps even more importantly - this can sometimes signal management is focused on the long term future of the business. We think this is a pretty attractive combination, and would be interested in investigating Greene County Bancorp more closely.

In light of that, while Greene County Bancorp has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock.

If you're in the market for strong dividend payers, we recommend checking our selection of top dividend stocks.

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.