Why Regions Financial (RF) 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 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 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.

Regions Financial in Focus

Regions Financial (RF) is headquartered in Birmingham, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 4.63% since the start of the year. The holding company for Regions Bank is paying out a dividend of $0.14 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 4% compared to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 1.87% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.94%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.56 is up 21.7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Regions Financial has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 25.80%. 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. Right now, Regions Financial's payout ratio is 39%, which means it paid out 39% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, RF expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 is $1.54 per share, with earnings expected to increase 13.24% from the year ago period.

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. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, RF 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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