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This is Why T. Rowe Price (TROW) is a Great Dividend Stock

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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 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

T. Rowe Price in Focus

Headquartered in Baltimore, T. Rowe Price (TROW - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of 16.7% so far this year. The financial services firm is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.76 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.82%. This compares to the Financial - Investment Management industry's yield of 2.97% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.97%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $3.04 is up 8.6% from last year. In the past five-year period, T. Rowe Price has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 10.85%. 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. Right now, T. Rowe's payout ratio is 41%, which means it paid out 41% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

TROW is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $7.79 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 7.15%.

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.

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 TROW 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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