Here's what we like about SouthState's (NYSE:SSB) upcoming dividend.

SouthState Corporation (NYSE:SSB) will trade ex-dividend in the next four days. The ex-dividend date is usually one business day before the record date on which you must be registered as a shareholder on the company's books in order to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any time you buy or sell a stock, the trade takes at least two business days to settle. In other words, investors can purchase SouthState shares before November 8th in order to be eligible for the dividend, which will be paid on November 15th.

The company's next dividend payment will be $0.54 per share. Last year, the company distributed a total of $2.16 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, SouthState has a trailing yield of 2.2% on the current share price of $97.42. Dividends are an important source of income for many shareholders, but the health of the company is critical to maintaining those dividends. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered and whether earnings are increasing.

Check out our latest analysis for SouthState

Dividends are usually paid from company earnings. So if a company pays out more than it earned, it's usually at a higher risk of having its dividend cut. SouthState paid out a comfortable 32% of its profits last year.

In general, the lower a company's payout ratio, the more resilient its dividend tends to be.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio and analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Companies with strong growth prospects tend to make the best dividend payers because it is easier to increase the dividend when earnings per share are increasing. If profits 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 a relief to see that SouthState's earnings per share have grown at 5.9% per year over the last five years.

Many investors assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. SouthState has averaged dividend growth of 11% per year over the past 10 years. We're pleased to see dividends increasing in line with earnings over the years, which could be a sign that the company intends to share growth with shareholders.

Is SouthState worth buying for its dividend? In recent years, the company has increased its earnings per share somewhat, although it reinvests more than half of its profits back into the business, which could indicate that there are some growth projects that have not yet come to fruition. Overall, SouthState appears to be a promising dividend stock in this analysis, and we think it's worth further investigation.

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