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Do These 3 Checks Before Buying Citizens & Northern Corporation (NASDAQ:CZNC) For Its Upcoming Dividend

Citizens & Northern Corporation (NASDAQ:CZNC) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 3 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 30th of October will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 13th of November.

Citizens & Northern's next dividend payment will be US$0.27 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$1.08 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Citizens & Northern has a trailing yield of 6.0% on the current share price of $17.91. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. As a result, readers should always check whether Citizens & Northern has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for Citizens & Northern

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 86% 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 worried about the risk of a drop in earnings.

Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.

Click here to see how much of its profit Citizens & Northern paid out over the last 12 months.

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historic-dividend

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. It's not encouraging to see that Citizens & Northern's earnings are effectively flat over the past five years. Better than seeing them fall off a cliff, for sure, but the best dividend stocks grow their earnings meaningfully over the long run.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, Citizens & Northern has lifted its dividend by approximately 1.2% a year on average.

Final Takeaway

Is Citizens & Northern worth buying for its dividend? Citizens & Northern's earnings per share have been essentially flat, and the company is paying out more than half of its earnings as dividends to shareholders. Citizens & Northern doesn't appear to have a lot going for it, and we're not inclined to take a risk on owning it for the dividend.

Although, if you're still interested in Citizens & Northern and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Citizens & Northern you should know about.

A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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