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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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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 for income investors, generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments is your primary focus.

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.

Cullen/Frost Bankers in Focus

Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR - Free Report) is headquartered in San Antonio, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 11.35% since the start of the year. The financial holding company is paying out a dividend of $0.87 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.48% compared to the Banks - Southwest industry's yield of 1.44% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.74%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.48 is up 18.4% from last year. Cullen/Frost Bankers has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 5.37%. 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. Right now, Cullen/Frost's payout ratio is 46%, which means it paid out 46% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, CFR expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $8.09 per share, with earnings expected to increase 19.67% from the year ago period.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. 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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, CFR 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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