Why Kilroy Realty (KRC) 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. 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Kilroy Realty in Focus

Kilroy Realty (KRC) is headquartered in Los Angeles, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 21.23% since the start of the year. The real estate investment trust is paying out a dividend of $0.46 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.39% compared to the REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry's yield of 4.21% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.96%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.82 is up 1.7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Kilroy Realty has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 7.16%. Future dividend growth will depend on earnings growth as well as payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Kilroy Realty's current payout ratio is 52%. This means it paid out 52% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

KRC is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $3.71 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 6.61%.

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.

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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, KRC 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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