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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock? EnLink Midstream (ENLC) Could Be a Great Choice

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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. 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.

EnLink Midstream in Focus

EnLink Midstream (ENLC - Free Report) is headquartered in Dallas, and is in the Oils-Energy sector. The stock has seen a price change of -10.46% since the start of the year. The natural gas company is paying out a dividend of $0.27 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 6.78% compared to the Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry's yield of 2.21% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.95%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.07 is up 4.9% from last year. In the past five-year period, EnLink Midstream has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 10.38%. 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. EnLink Midstream's current payout ratio is 438%. This means it paid out 438% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, ENLC expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 is $0.32 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 740%.

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.

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. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that ENLC is not only an attractive dividend play, but also represents a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


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