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Why JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is a Top Dividend Stock for Your Portfolio

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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 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.

JPMorgan Chase in Focus

Based in New York, JPMorgan Chase (JPM - Free Report) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 18.95%. The biggest U.S. bank by assets is paying out a dividend of $0.8 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.76% compared to the Banks - Major Regional industry's yield of 2.8% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.89%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $3.20 is up 29% from last year. Over the last 5 years, JPMorgan Chase has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 13.81%. 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. JP Morgan's current payout ratio is 35%. This means it paid out 35% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

JPM is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $10 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 11.11%.

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. However, not all companies offer 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 have to be mindful 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 JPM 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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