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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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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. 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.

Conagra Brands in Focus

Headquartered in Chicago, Conagra Brands (CAG - Free Report) is a Consumer Staples stock that has seen a price change of 4.44% so far this year. The company is paying out a dividend of $0.33 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 3.27% compared to the Food - Miscellaneous industry's yield of 0.12% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.64%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.32 is up 5.6% from last year. In the past five-year period, Conagra Brands has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 11.23%. 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, Conagra Brands's payout ratio is 51%, which means it paid out 51% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for CAG for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 is $2.64 per share, with earnings expected to increase 11.86% from the year ago period.

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. 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 CAG is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).


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