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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 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.

Principal Financial in Focus

Based in Des Moines, Principal Financial (PFG - Free Report) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 6.13%. The financial services company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.69 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.31%. This compares to the Financial - Investment Management industry's yield of 2.77% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.58%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.76 is up 6.2% from last year. In the past five-year period, Principal Financial has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.15%. 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. Principal Financial's current payout ratio is 41%. This means it paid out 41% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, PFG expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $7.50 per share, with earnings expected to increase 14.50% from the year ago period.

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. But, not every company offers 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, PFG 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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