Published on 24 Feb 2024 on Simply Wall St. via Yahoo Finance

Be Sure To Check Out First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend

Readers hoping to buy First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. In other words, investors can purchase First Merchants' shares before the 29th of February in order to be eligible for the dividend, which will be paid on the 15th of March.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.34 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$1.36 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, First Merchants stock has a trailing yield of around 4.0% on the current share price of US$34.13. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

View our latest analysis for First Merchants