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Why SL Green (SLG) 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. But 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

SL Green in Focus

SL Green (SLG - Free Report) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -34.7% since the start of the year. The commercial real estate investment trust is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.88 per share, with a dividend yield of 5.9%. This compares to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry's yield of 4.41% and the S&P 500's yield of 2.51%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.54 is up 3.1% from last year. SL Green has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 7.75%. 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. SL Green's current payout ratio is 51%, meaning it paid out 51% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

SLG is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 is $7.28 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 4%.

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. But, not every company offers 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. With that in mind, SLG is a compelling investment opportunity. Not only is it a strong dividend play, but the stock currently sits at a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold).


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