It is a dividend aristocrat as well as a component of the S&P 500 index. Over the past 10 years this dividend growth stock has delivered an average total return of 10.10% annually to its shareholders. The stock price has fallen in 2007 along with other financial issues. If the fundamental financial position does not deteriorate significantly, the company should be able to weather the crisis.
The company has managed to deliver an impressive 10.56% average annual increase in its EPS.
The ROE has been in a 10%-15% range for our study period, which is also an impressive number.
Annual dividend payments have increased over the past 10 years by an average of 24.21% annually, which is above the growth in EPS. A 24% growth in dividends translates into the dividend payment doubling every three years. If we look at historical data, going as far back as 1991, MTB has actually managed to double its dividend payments every four years on average .
If we invested $100,000 in MTB on December 31, 1997 we would have bought 2151 shares. Your quarterly dividend income would have been $172.08 in February 1998. If you kept reinvesting the dividends though instead of spending them, your quarterly dividend income would have risen to $1732.50 by December 2007 and you would be expecting to collect $1747.20 in dividend income in February 2008. For a period of 10 years, your quarterly dividend income has increased by an impressive 775 %. If you reinvested it though, your quarterly dividend income would have increased by an even more impressive 915%.
The dividend payout has been in a steady uptrend over the past 10 years, rising from less than 15% in 1998 to over 43% in 2007. Based off this, I believe that future dividend growth might be lower than the 24% achieved in prior years as the payout crosses 50% and that it would be limited to the ability of the company to increase its EPS.
I believe that the company is a bargain at current levels with its low P/E at 13, attractive dividend yield of 3.50% and payout of less than 50%.
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