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CNB Financial (CCNE) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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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. 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.

CNB Financial in Focus

CNB Financial (CCNE - Free Report) is headquartered in Clearfield, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 2.26% since the start of the year. The bank holding company is paying out a dividend of $0.17 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.58% compared to the Banks - Northeast industry's yield of 2.13% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.35%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.70 is up 2.2% from last year. In the past five-year period, CNB Financial has increased its dividend 2 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 0.92%. 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. CNB's current payout ratio is 22%, meaning it paid out 22% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for CCNE for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $3.20 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 1.27%.

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. But, not every company offers 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. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that CCNE is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


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