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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 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.

Greenbrier Companies in Focus

Greenbrier Companies (GBX - Free Report) is headquartered in Lake Oswego, and is in the Transportation sector. The stock has seen a price change of 10.05% since the start of the year. The maker of railroad freight car equipment is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.3 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.47%. This compares to the Transportation - Equipment and Leasing industry's yield of 1.67% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.62%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.20 is up 8.1% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Greenbrier Companies has increased its dividend 2 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 2.37%. 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, Greenbrier's payout ratio is 31%, which means it paid out 31% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, GBX expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $3.75 per share, with earnings expected to increase 26.26% from the year ago period.

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. However, not all companies offer a quarterly payout.

For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers their shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. 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, GBX presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).


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