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National Bank Holdings (NBHC) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?

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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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

National Bank Holdings in Focus

National Bank Holdings (NBHC - Free Report) is headquartered in Greenwood Village, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 16.75% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.19 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.11%. In comparison, the Banks - Southeast industry's yield is 1.77%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.88%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $0.76 is up 40.7% from last year. Over the last 5 years, National Bank Holdings has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 36.45%. 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. National Bank Holdings's current payout ratio is 30%. This means it paid out 30% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for NBHC for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $2.42 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 12.04%.

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.

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, NBHC 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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