WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) Has Announced A Dividend Of $0.15

WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) will pay a dividend of $0.15 on the 24th of May. This means the annual payment will be 1.4% of the current stock price, which is lower than the industry average.

View our latest analysis for WSFS Financial

WSFS Financial's Earnings Will Easily Cover The Distributions

It would be nice for the yield to be higher, but we should also check if higher levels of dividend payment would be sustainable.

Having distributed dividends for at least 10 years, WSFS Financial has a long history of paying out a part of its earnings to shareholders. While past data isn't a guarantee for the future, WSFS Financial's latest earnings report puts its payout ratio at 13%, showing that the company can pay out its dividends comfortably.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 1.8% over the next year. But if the dividend continues along the path it has been on recently, we estimate the future payout ratio could be 15%, which would be comfortable for the company to continue in the future.

WSFS Financial Has A Solid Track Record

The company has an extended history of paying stable dividends. Since 2014, the dividend has gone from $0.16 total annually to $0.60. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 14% per annum over that time. It is good to see that there has been strong dividend growth, and that there haven't been any cuts for a long time.

WSFS Financial Could Grow Its Dividend

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. It's encouraging to see that WSFS Financial has been growing its earnings per share at 6.5% a year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for WSFS Financial's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

We Really Like WSFS Financial's Dividend

Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think WSFS Financial might even raise payments in the future. The company is generating plenty of cash, and the earnings also quite easily cover the distributions. We should point out that the earnings are expected to fall over the next 12 months, which won't be a problem if this doesn't become a trend, but could cause some turbulence in the next year. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. As an example, we've identified 1 warning sign for WSFS Financial that you should be aware of before investing. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

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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.