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Stifel Financial (SF) Could Be a Great Choice

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

Stifel Financial in Focus

Stifel Financial (SF - Free Report) is headquartered in St. Louis, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 18.25% since the start of the year. The brokerage and investment banking firm is paying out a dividend of $0.42 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.05% compared to the Financial - Investment Bank industry's yield of 0.45% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.61%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.68 is up 16.7% from last year. Stifel Financial has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 42.22%. 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. Stifel's current payout ratio is 35%. This means it paid out 35% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, SF expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $7.04 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 50.43%.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. 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. With that in mind, SF 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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