Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Why Evercore (EVR) is a Top Dividend Stock for Your Portfolio

Read MoreHide Full Article

Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. However, when you're an income investor, your primary focus is generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments.

While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, income investors hone in on dividends. A dividend is the distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders; it's often viewed by its dividend yield, a metric that measures a dividend as a percent of the current stock price. Many academic studies show that dividends make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

Evercore in Focus

Evercore (EVR - Free Report) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 24.33% since the start of the year. The investment bank is paying out a dividend of $0.68 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2% compared to the Financial - Investment Bank industry's yield of 0.19% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.3%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.72 is up 15.7% from last year. Evercore has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 17.80%. Looking ahead, future dividend growth will be dependent on earnings growth and payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Right now, Evercore's payout ratio is 21%, which means it paid out 21% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, EVR expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 is $11.55 per share, with earnings expected to increase 20.06% from the year ago period.

Bottom Line

From greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. However, not all companies offer a quarterly payout.

Big, established firms that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options, but it's fairly uncommon to see high-growth businesses or tech start-ups offer their stockholders a dividend. Income investors have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that EVR is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Evercore Inc (EVR) - free report >>

Published in