All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. But for income investors, generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments is your primary focus.
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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.
Capital City Bank (CCBG) is headquartered in Tallahassee, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 5.57% since the start of the year. The bank holding company is paying out a dividend of $0.24 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.48% compared to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 2.44% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.51%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.96 is up 9.1% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Capital City Bank has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 12.29%. 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. Capital City Bank's current payout ratio is 28%, meaning it paid out 28% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Earnings growth looks solid for CCBG for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $3.43 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 9.94%.
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 its shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, CCBG presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
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Capital City Bank Group (CCBG): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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