The board of Renasant Corporation (NYSE:RNST) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 30th of June, with investors receiving $0.22 per share. Based on this payment, the dividend yield will be 2.7%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

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Renasant's Payment Expected To Have Solid Earnings Coverage

We like to see a healthy dividend yield, but that is only helpful to us if the payment can continue.

Renasant has a long history of paying out dividends, with its current track record at a minimum of 10 years. Taking data from its last earnings report, calculating for the company's payout ratio shows 27%, which means that Renasant would be able to pay its last dividend without pressure on the balance sheet.

The next year is set to see EPS grow by 5.3%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the future payout ratio will be 28%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.

View our latest analysis for Renasant

Renasant Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. The dividend has gone from an annual total of $0.68 in 2015 to the most recent total annual payment of $0.88. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 2.6% a year over that time. Slow and steady dividend growth might not sound that exciting, but dividends have been stable for ten years, which we think makes this a fairly attractive offer.

The Dividend Has Growth Potential

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Renasant has impressed us by growing EPS at 7.5% per year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Renasant's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

An additional note is that the company has been raising capital by issuing stock equal to 13% of shares outstanding in the last 12 months. Regularly doing this can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created.

Renasant Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, we like to see the dividend staying consistent, and we think Renasant 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.

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. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 6 analysts we track are forecasting for Renasant for free with public analyst estimates for the company. Is Renasant not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top 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.