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.
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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.
Based in Toronto, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 0.08%. Currently paying a dividend of $0.79 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 3.34%. In comparison, the Banks - Foreign industry's yield is 2.62%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.37%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.15 is up 5.5% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Toronto-Dominion Bank has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.24%. 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. Toronto-Dominion's current payout ratio is 48%, meaning it paid out 48% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
TD is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $6.42 per share, with earnings expected to increase 7.36% from the year ago period.
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 its shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. Income investors have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, TD 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
