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.
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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.
Based in Greenville, United Community Banks (UCB) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of -3%. The bank holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.24 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.06%. This compares to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 2.31% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.53%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.96 is up 2.1% from last year. Over the last 5 years, United Community Banks has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 6.51%. 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. United Community Banks's current payout ratio is 41%, meaning it paid out 41% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
UCB is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $2.55 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 10.87%.
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.
High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. 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 UCB is not only an attractive dividend play, but also represents a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
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United Community Banks, Inc. (UCB): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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