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Radian (RDN) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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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.

Cash flow can come from bond interest, interest from other types of investments, and of course, 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Radian in Focus

Based in Philadelphia, Radian (RDN - Free Report) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 19.56%. The mortgage insurer is paying out a dividend of $0.14 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.31% compared to the Insurance - Multi line industry's yield of 1.67% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.36%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $0.56 is up 12% from last year. In the past five-year period, Radian has increased its dividend 2 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 195.33%. 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. Radian's current payout ratio is 21%, meaning it paid out 21% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

RDN is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 is $2.88 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 65.52%.

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. But, not every company offers a quarterly payout.

For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers their shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, RDN presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).


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