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.
While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, income investors hone in on 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.
Capital City Bank (CCBG) is headquartered in Tallahassee, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 6.81% since the start of the year. The bank holding company is paying out a dividend of $0.27 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.38% compared to the Banks - Southeast industry's yield of 2.02% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.4%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.08 is up 8% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Capital City Bank has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 12.29%. 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. Capital City Bank's current payout ratio is 29%, meaning it paid out 29% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Looking at this fiscal year, CCBG expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $3.69 per share, with earnings expected to increase 2.50% from the year ago period.
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.
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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that CCBG is not only an attractive dividend play, but also represents a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
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Capital City Bank Group (CCBG): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).