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Hanover Insurance Group (THG) 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.

Hanover Insurance Group in Focus

Based in Worcester, Hanover Insurance Group (THG - Free Report) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 10.19%. The insurance company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.85 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.54%. This compares to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.17% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.58%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.40 is up 3.7% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Hanover Insurance Group has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 7.28%. Future dividend growth will depend on earnings growth as well as payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Hanover Insurance's current payout ratio is 41%. This means it paid out 41% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, THG expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $10.85 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 595.51%.

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, THG presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


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