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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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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. But 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 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

Bank OZK in Focus

Headquartered in Little Rock, Bank OZK (OZK - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of -15.47% so far this year. The bank is paying out a dividend of $0.38 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 3.61% compared to the Banks - Northeast industry's yield of 3.03% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.64%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.52 is up 7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Bank OZK has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 10.36%. 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. Bank OZK's current payout ratio is 25%. This means it paid out 25% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

OZK is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $5.93 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 1.02%.

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.

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. Income investors have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that OZK 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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