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Prosperity Bancshares (PB) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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Getting big returns from financial portfolios, whether through stocks, bonds, ETFs, other securities, or a combination of all, is an investor's dream. 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.

Prosperity Bancshares in Focus

Headquartered in Houston, Prosperity Bancshares (PB - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of 2.56% so far this year. The financial holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.52 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.81%. This compares to the Banks - Southwest industry's yield of 1.29% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.61%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.08 is up 4.5% from last year. Prosperity Bancshares has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 9.78%. 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. Right now, Prosperity Bancshares's payout ratio is 38%, which means it paid out 38% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for PB for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $5.77 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 3.04%.

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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that PB 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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