Yahoo Finance Why State Street Corporation (STT) is a Top Dividend Stock for Your Portfolio
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 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.
State Street Corporation in Focus
State Street Corporation (STT) is headquartered in Boston, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of -5.25% since the start of the year. The company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.69 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.76%. This compares to the Banks - Major Regional industry's yield of 3.76% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.58%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.76 is up 4.5% from last year. Over the last 5 years, State Street Corporation has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 7.73%. 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. State Street's current payout ratio is 35%. This means it paid out 35% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
STT is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $7.93 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 3.52%.
Bottom Line
Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. However, not all companies offer 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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, STT 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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State Street Corporation (STT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
