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Prosperity Bancshares (PB) Could Be a Great Choice

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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. But for income investors, generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments is your primary focus.

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.

Prosperity Bancshares in Focus

Prosperity Bancshares (PB - Free Report) is headquartered in Houston, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -2.78% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.52 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.96%. In comparison, the Banks - Southwest industry's yield is 1.48%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.67%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.08 is up 4.5% from last year. In the past five-year period, Prosperity Bancshares has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 9.78%. Any future dividend growth will depend on both earnings growth and the company's payout ratio; a payout ratio is the proportion of a firm's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Prosperity Bancshares's current payout ratio is 38%. This means it paid out 38% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for PB for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $5.72 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 2.14%.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. 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 must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, PB is a compelling investment opportunity. Not only is it a strong dividend play, but the stock currently sits at a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold).


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