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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. However, 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 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Colgate-Palmolive in Focus

Colgate-Palmolive (CL - Free Report) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Consumer Staples sector. The stock has seen a price change of 8.54% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.48 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.22%. In comparison, the Soap and Cleaning Materials industry's yield is 2.34%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.59%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.92 is up 0.5% from last year. Colgate-Palmolive has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 2.88%. 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. Colgate-Palmolive's current payout ratio is 59%, meaning it paid out 59% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, CL expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $3.48 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 7.74%.

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 must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, CL presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).


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