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Why Iberiabank (IBKC) is a Great Dividend Stock Right Now

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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. But 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.

Iberiabank in Focus

Based in Lafayette, Iberiabank is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 0.25%. The financial holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.39 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.01%. This compares to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 1.39% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.93%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.56 is up 6.8% from last year. Iberiabank has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 2.92%. 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. Right now, Iberiabank's payout ratio is 28%, which means it paid out 28% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

IBKC is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 is $6.56 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 46.76%.

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. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide a quarterly payout.

High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. 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, IBKC 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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