Boston, MA 10/06/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Bridge Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDGE) has maintained its quarterly cash dividend rate of 23 cents a share. For the 38th quarter, the company was paying the same dividend. As a result, there has been no growth rate in both the three-year, as well as, five-year period.
Dividend Payment
According to Bridge Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDGE)’s statement, it has fixed October 17 as the record date to determine the eligible shareholders to get a dividend for the third quarter. The company would pay the dividend on October 31 while the stock would turn to ex-dividend from October 15. It claimed that it continued the trend of paying the dividend uninterruptedly.
The current dividend rate worked out to 92 cents a share on an annualized basis. The latest dividend provided a yield of 3.80% while the five-year average dividend yield was slightly higher at 4.20%. The projected ten-year average dividend yield was 3.80%.
Significantly, dividend payout ratio was 86.00% for the latest period, which was higher than the five-year average dividend payout ratio of 66.00%. This could very well indicate that the company was struggling to earn profits to maintain the dividend rate.
No Growth Rate
Looking at the history of its dividend payment, Bridge Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDGE) has last increased its dividend in March 2005. It raised its dividend to 23 cents a share from 22 cents a share, according to a data from Nasdaq. In the preceding quarters, it paid 21 cents a share, 18 cents a share and 25 cents a share suggesting a volatility. Significantly, the company paid the same amount of dividend at the height of financial turmoil in 2008 and 2009.
The absence of dividend growth was more due to its shrinking profits, Nasdaq data indicated. For instance, in the current year’s first quarter Bridge Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDGE) earned four cents a share compared to 35 cents a share earned in the year-ago quarter. However, it earned two cents a share more in the second quarter. On a cumulative basis, i.e. for the six-month period, it represented only 41 cents a share compared to 70 cents a share in the previous year period. Therefore, if dividend rate needs to be raised, the company must earn more profit.
