Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?
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.
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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.
Unitil in Focus
Unitil (UTL) is headquartered in Hampton, and is in the Utilities sector. The stock has seen a price change of 12.78% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.43 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.87%. In comparison, the Utility - Electric Power industry's yield is 3.34%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.56%.
Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.70 is up 4.9% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Unitil has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 2.77%. 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. Unitil's current payout ratio is 56%. This means it paid out 56% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
UTL is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $2.92 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 3.55%.
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.
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. With that in mind, UTL 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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