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.
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.
East West Bancorp (EWBC) is headquartered in Pasadena, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 21.13% since the start of the year. The bank holding company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.80 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.35%. This compares to the Banks - West industry's yield of 2.53% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.32%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.20 is up 33.3% from last year. Over the last 5 years, East West Bancorp has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 18.17%. 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. East West Bancorp's current payout ratio is 32%, meaning it paid out 32% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
EWBC is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $10.56 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 11.28%.
From 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.
For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers its shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. 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, EWBC 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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East West Bancorp, Inc. (EWBC): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).