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Woori Bank (WF) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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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.

Woori Bank (WF - Free Report) is headquartered in Seoul, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 79.68% since the start of the year. The company is paying out a dividend of $0.34 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.41% compared to the Banks - Foreign industry's yield of 3.16% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.49%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.35 is up 48% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Woori Bank has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 11.20%. 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. Woori Bank's current payout ratio is 17%, meaning it paid out 17% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for WF for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $8.74 per share, with earnings expected to increase 0.58% from the year ago period.

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.

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 must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, WF 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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