Yahoo Finance Regions Financial (RF) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?
All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. 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 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.
Regions Financial in Focus
Based in Birmingham, Regions Financial (RF) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 5.24%. The holding company for Regions Bank is paying out a dividend of $0.2 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 3.53% compared to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 2.16% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.64%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.80 is up 8.1% from last year. Regions Financial has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 12.13%. 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. Regions Financial's current payout ratio is 34%, meaning it paid out 34% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Earnings growth looks solid for RF for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 is $2.50 per share, with earnings expected to increase 5.49% 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. But, not every company offers 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 have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, RF 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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Regions Financial Corporation (RF) : Free Stock Analysis Report
