Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Crane Holdings (CR) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

Read MoreHide Full Article

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.

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.

Crane Holdings in Focus

Crane Holdings (CR - Free Report) is headquartered in Stamford, and is in the Industrial Products sector. The stock has seen a price change of -8.46% since the start of the year. The maker of engineered industrial products is paying out a dividend of $0.47 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.02% compared to the Manufacturing - Material Handling industry's yield of 1.92% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.69%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.88 is up 9.3% from last year. Crane Holdings has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 7.54%. 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. Crane Holdings's current payout ratio is 27%. This means it paid out 27% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for CR for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $7.68 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 17.25%.

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. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide 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, CR 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).


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Crane Company (CR) - free report >>

Published in