Why Essent Group (ESNT) 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. However, 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 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.Essent Group in FocusBased in Hamilton, Essent Group (ESNT) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of 7%. The mortgage insurance and reinsurance holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.31 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.13%. This compares to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.55% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.56%.Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.24 is up 10.7% from last year. Essent Group has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 16.16%. 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. Essent Group's current payout ratio is 18%, meaning it paid out 18% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.Looking at this fiscal year, ESNT expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $6.87 per share, with earnings expected to increase 0.29% from the year ago period.Bottom LineFrom greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. 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. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that ESNT is not only an attractive dividend play, but also represents a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>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 Essent Group Ltd. (ESNT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks