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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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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 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 that coveted distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders, and investors often view it by its dividend yield, a metric that measures the 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.

Carter's in Focus

Carter's (CRI - Free Report) is headquartered in Atlanta, and is in the Consumer Discretionary sector. The stock has seen a price change of -0.49% since the start of the year. The maker of children's apparel and accessories is paying out a dividend of $0.8 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 4.29% compared to the Shoes and Retail Apparel industry's yield of 1.86% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.58%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.20 is up 6.7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Carter's has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 11.98%. 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. Carter's's current payout ratio is 48%. This means it paid out 48% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for CRI for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $6.45 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 4.20%.

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.

High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, CRI 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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