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Prosperity Bancshares (PB) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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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.

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.

Prosperity Bancshares in Focus

Headquartered in Houston, Prosperity Bancshares (PB - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of -10.56% so far this year. The financial holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.56 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.7%. This compares to the Banks - Southwest industry's yield of 0.88% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.6%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.24 is up 1.4% from last year. Prosperity Bancshares has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 6.86%. 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, Prosperity Bancshares's payout ratio is 45%, which means it paid out 45% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

PB is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $5.05 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 1.61%.

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. However, not all companies offer 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. 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, PB 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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