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Why First Industrial Realty Trust (FR) is a Great Dividend Stock Right Now

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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. 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.

First Industrial Realty Trust in Focus

First Industrial Realty Trust (FR - Free Report) is headquartered in Chicago, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 4.42% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.37 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.69%. In comparison, the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry's yield is 4.37%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.61%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.48 is up 15.6% from last year. In the past five-year period, First Industrial Realty Trust has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 9.57%. 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. First Industrial Realty Trust's current payout ratio is 59%, meaning it paid out 59% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for FR for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $2.60 per share, with earnings expected to increase 6.56% 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. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide a quarterly payout.

For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers their shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. 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, FR 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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