Yahoo Finance Evans Bancorp (EVBN) is a Top Dividend Stock Right Now: Should You Buy?
All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. 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 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.
Evans Bancorp in Focus
Headquartered in Williamsville, Evans Bancorp (EVBN) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of -8.75% so far this year. The bank is paying out a dividend of $0.66 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 3.87% compared to the Banks - Northeast industry's yield of 3% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.8%.
In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.32 is up 4.8% from last year. Evans Bancorp has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 7.75%. 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. Evans Bancorp's current payout ratio is 32%. This means it paid out 32% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
EVBN is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 is $4.15 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 2.72%.
Bottom Line
From greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide 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 have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, EVBN 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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Evans Bancorp, Inc. (EVBN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
