Why Investors Bancorp (ISBC) is a Top Dividend Stock for Your Portfolio
Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. 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 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.
Investors Bancorp in Focus
Investors Bancorp (ISBC) is headquartered in Short Hills, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 49.15% since the start of the year. The holding company for Investors Bank is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.14 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.56%. This compares to the Financial - Savings and Loan industry's yield of 2.52% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.37%.
Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $0.56 is up 16.7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Investors Bancorp has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 13.66%. Any future dividend growth will depend on both earnings growth and the company's payout ratio; a payout ratio is the proportion of a firm's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Right now, Investors Bancorp's payout ratio is 45%, which means it paid out 45% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
ISBC is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 is $1.25 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 32.98%.
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. 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, ISBC 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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