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Why Travelers (TRV) is a Great Dividend Stock Right Now

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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.

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.

Travelers in Focus

Travelers (TRV - Free Report) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 8.06% since the start of the year. The insurer is paying out a dividend of $1.05 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.04% compared to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.19% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.59%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $4.20 is up 6.9% from last year. Travelers has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 4.80%. 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. Travelers's current payout ratio is 29%, meaning it paid out 29% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, TRV expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $17.86 per share, with earnings expected to increase 36.02% from the year ago period.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. However, not all companies offer 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, TRV 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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