Are You Looking for a High-Growth Dividend Stock? Prosperity Bancshares (PB) Could Be a Great Choice

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.

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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Prosperity Bancshares in Focus

Based in Houston, Prosperity Bancshares (PB) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 3.98%. The financial holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.41 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.53%. This compares to the Banks - Southwest industry's yield of 1.4% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.95%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.64 is up 10.1% from last year. In the past five-year period, Prosperity Bancshares has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 10.72%. 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. Prosperity Bancshares's current payout ratio is 35%. This means it paid out 35% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

PB is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $4.76 per share, with earnings expected to increase 3.25% 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. 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 have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, PB 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).

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
 
Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (PB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research