Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that PCB Bancorp (NASDAQ:PCB) is about to go ex-dividend in just four days. The ex-dividend date occurs one day before the record date which is the day on which shareholders need to be on the company's books in order to receive a dividend. It is important to be aware of the ex-dividend date because any trade on the stock needs to have been settled on or before the record date. This means that investors who purchase PCB Bancorp's shares on or after the 8th of November will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 15th of November.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.18 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.72 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, PCB Bancorp has a trailing yield of approximately 3.8% on its current stock price of US$18.815. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. So we need to investigate whether PCB Bancorp can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for PCB Bancorp

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. Fortunately PCB Bancorp's payout ratio is modest, at just 43% of profit.

Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend.

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

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. It's not encouraging to see that PCB Bancorp's earnings are effectively flat over the past five years. We'd take that over an earnings decline any day, but in the long run, the best dividend stocks all grow their earnings per share.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the last nine years, PCB Bancorp has lifted its dividend by approximately 23% a year on average.