Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?
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.
While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, income investors hone in on 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.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities in Focus
Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) is headquartered in Pasadena, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -12.61% since the start of the year. The life science real estate company is paying out a dividend of $1.15 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.36% compared to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry's yield of 3.21% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.36%.
Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $4.60 is up 2.7% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Alexandria Real Estate Equities has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 6.78%. Future dividend growth will depend on earnings growth as well as payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Right now, Alexandria Real Estate Equities's payout ratio is 59%, which means it paid out 59% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
ARE is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $8.36 per share, with earnings expected to increase 7.73% from the year ago period.
Bottom Line
Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. However, not all companies offer 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 must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that ARE is not only an attractive dividend play, but also represents a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
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
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (ARE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
