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Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?

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Getting big returns from financial portfolios, whether through stocks, bonds, ETFs, other securities, or a combination of all, is an investor's dream. However, 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.

American International Group (AIG - Free Report) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -8.64% since the start of the year. The insurer is paying out a dividend of $0.50 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.56% compared to the Insurance - Multi line industry's yield of 1.79% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.33%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.00 is up 14.3% from last year. Over the last 5 years, American International Group has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 6.78%. 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. American International Group's current payout ratio is 22%, meaning it paid out 22% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for AIG for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $7.97 per share, with earnings expected to increase 12.41% from the year ago period.

Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. But, not every company offers 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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, AIG 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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