The board of Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GCBC) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 28th of February, with investors receiving $0.09 per share. This payment means the dividend yield will be 1.4%, which is below the average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Greene County Bancorp

Greene County Bancorp's Dividend Forecasted To Be Well Covered By Earnings

The dividend yield is a little bit low, but sustainability of the payments is also an important part of evaluating an income stock.

Having distributed dividends for at least 10 years, Greene County Bancorp has a long history of paying out a part of its earnings to shareholders. Using data from its latest earnings report, Greene County Bancorp's payout ratio sits at 11%, an extremely comfortable number that shows that it can pay its dividend.

If the trend of the last few years continues, EPS will grow by 7.4% over the next 12 months. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the future payout ratio could be 22% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.

Greene County Bancorp Has A Solid Track Record

The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. The annual payment during the last 10 years was $0.175 in 2015, and the most recent fiscal year payment was $0.36. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 7.5% over that duration. The growth of the dividend has been pretty reliable, so we think this can offer investors some nice additional income in their portfolio.

The Dividend Has Growth Potential

The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. We are encouraged to see that Greene County Bancorp has grown earnings per share at 7.4% per year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Greene County Bancorp's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

We Really Like Greene County Bancorp's Dividend

Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think Greene County Bancorp might even raise payments in the future. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. You can also discover whether shareholders are aligned with insider interests by checking our visualisation of insider shareholdings and trades in Greene County Bancorp stock. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of 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.