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This is Why Lincoln National (LNC) is a Great 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. 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 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.

Lincoln National in Focus

Lincoln National (LNC - Free Report) is headquartered in Radnor, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -24.87% since the start of the year. The insurance and retirement business is paying out a dividend of $0.33 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.28% compared to the Insurance - Life Insurance industry's yield of 0.81% and the S&P 500's yield of 2%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.32 is up 13.8% from last year. Lincoln National has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 21.37%. 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. Lincoln National's current payout ratio is 17%, meaning it paid out 17% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

LNC is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 is $8.40 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 7.83%.

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.

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. 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 LNC 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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