Yahoo Finance Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock?
Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. But 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 that coveted distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders, and investors often view it by its dividend yield, a metric that measures the 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.
Unitil in Focus
Headquartered in Hampton, Unitil (UTL) is a Utilities stock that has seen a price change of -1.27% so far this year. The utility is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.41 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.19%. This compares to the Utility - Electric Power industry's yield of 3.6% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.65%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.62 is up 3.8% from last year. Unitil has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 1.79%. 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. Unitil's current payout ratio is 59%. This means it paid out 59% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Looking at this fiscal year, UTL expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 is $2.78 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 7.34%.
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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, UTL 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).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Unitil Corporation (UTL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
