If you’re looking for sources of dividend income, this list may give you some interesting ideas for your search.
We ran a screen on dividend stocks that have seen at least a 15% increase in dividend per share, comparing the trailing-twelve-month figure to the current year estimate. These stocks pay at least a dividend yield above 2%, with a sustainable payout ratio below 35%.
From this universe, we then searched for those that have also seen significant net buying from institutional investors (i.e. the “smart money”) over the current quarter.
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the top six stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.
We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P 500 index over the last month. To access a complete analysis of this list's recent performance, click here.
Do you think these stocks will keep raising their dividends? Use this list as a starting-off point for your own analysis.
List sorted by net institutional purchases as a percent of share float.
1. Aircastle LTD (AYR): Rental & Leasing Services Industry. Market cap of $953.10M. Dividend yield at 3.21%, payout ratio at 33.99%. Current year dividend per share estimate at $0.40 vs. TTM dividend per share at $0.30. Net institutional purchases over the current quarter at 4.7M shares, which represents 8.11% of the company's 57.92M share float. This is a risky stock that is significantly more volatile than the overall market (beta = 2.26). The stock has gained 61.87% over the last year.
2. Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (BAGL): Restaurants Industry. Market cap of $250.52M. Dividend yield at 3.34%, payout ratio at 34.98%. Current year dividend per share estimate at $0.40 vs. TTM dividend per share at $0.25. Net institutional purchases over the current quarter at 330.8K shares, which represents 5.69% of the company's 5.81M share float. This is a risky stock that is significantly more volatile than the overall market (beta = 2.29). The stock has gained 42.55% over the last year.
3. KT Corp. (KT): Telecom Services Industry. Market cap of $10.28B. Dividend yield at 4.75%, payout ratio at 31.01%. Current year dividend per share estimate at $1.17 vs. TTM dividend per share at $0.94. Net institutional purchases over the current quarter at 9.2M shares, which represents 4.25% of the company's 216.40M share float. The stock has gained 4.63% over the last year.
4. El Paso Electric Co. (EE): Electric Utilities Industry. Market cap of $1.43B. Dividend yield at 2.61%, payout ratio at 10.81%. Current year dividend per share estimate at $0.77 vs. TTM dividend per share at $0.22. Net institutional purchases over the current quarter at 1.7M shares, which represents 4.10% of the company's 41.47M share float. Exhibiting strong upside momentum--currently trading 8.88% above its SMA20, 10.22% above its SMA50, and 20.72% above its SMA200. The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 6.38% over the last week.
5. Packaging Corp. of America (PKG): Packaging & Containers Industry. Market cap of $2.93B. Dividend yield at 2.79%, payout ratio at 29.81%. Current year dividend per share estimate at $0.76 vs. TTM dividend per share at $0.65. Net institutional purchases over the current quarter at 916.5K shares, which represents 0.93% of the company's 98.41M share float. The stock has gained 33.94% over the last year.
*Institutional data sourced from Fidelity, dividend data sourced from Screener.co, all other data sourced from Finviz.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
