Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Accordingly, Heritage Financial investors that purchase the stock on or after the 7th of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 21st of August.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.23 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.92 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Heritage Financial stock has a trailing yield of around 4.0% on the current share price of US$22.75. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Heritage Financial's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Heritage Financial can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for Heritage Financial

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Heritage Financial paid out 71% of its earnings to investors last year, a normal payout level for most businesses.

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 the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. That's why it's not ideal to see Heritage Financial's earnings per share have been shrinking at 3.0% a year over the previous 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, Heritage Financial has lifted its dividend by approximately 8.2% a year on average. That's interesting, but the combination of a growing dividend despite declining earnings can typically only be achieved by paying out more of the company's profits. This can be valuable for shareholders, but it can't go on forever.