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.
1st Source (SRCE) is headquartered in South Bend, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 8.53% since the start of the year. The holding company for 1st Source Bank is paying out a dividend of $0.38 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.4% compared to the Banks - Midwest industry's yield of 3.07% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.54%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.52 is up 8.6% from last year. Over the last 5 years, 1st Source has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.67%. 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. 1st Source's current payout ratio is 25%, meaning it paid out 25% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Looking at this fiscal year, SRCE expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $5.97 per share, with earnings expected to increase 8.74% from the year ago period.
Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide a quarterly payout.
Big, established firms that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options, but it's fairly uncommon to see high-growth businesses or tech start-ups offer their stockholders a dividend. Income investors have to be mindful 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 SRCE is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
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1st Source Corporation (SRCE): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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