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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. 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.

Cincinnati Financial in Focus

Headquartered in Fairfield, Cincinnati Financial (CINF - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of 29.4% so far this year. The insurer is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.81 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.42%. This compares to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.35% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.52%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.24 is up 8% from last year. In the past five-year period, Cincinnati Financial has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 7.97%. 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. Cincinnati Financial's current payout ratio is 47%. This means it paid out 47% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

CINF is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $6.58 per share, with earnings expected to increase 9.12% from the year ago period.

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. But, not every company offers 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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that CINF is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


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