Volatility and uncertainty in the stock market have rekindled investors’ love for products that provide stability and safety in a rocky market. Nothing seems a better strategy than picking dividend-focused growth stocks in this kind of an environment. A history of dividend growth year over year leads to a healthy portfolio with a greater scope of capital appreciation as opposed to simple dividend-paying stocks or those with high yields.
Why Dividend Growth?
Stocks that have a strong history of dividend growth belong to mature companies, which are less susceptible to large swings in the market, and thus act as a hedge against economic or political uncertainty as well as stock market volatility. At the same time, these offer downside protection with their consistent increase in payouts.
Additionally, these stocks have superior fundamentals that make dividend growth a quality and promising investment for the long term. These include a sustainable business model, a long track of profitability, rising cash flows, good liquidity, a strong balance sheet and some value characteristics. Further, a history of strong dividend growth indicates that a dividend hike is likely in the future.
Although these stocks do not necessarily have the highest yields, they have outperformed for a longer period than the broader stock market or any other dividend-paying stock.
As a result, picking stocks that offer dividend growth appears as a winning strategy when some other parameters are also included.
5-Year Historical Dividend Growth greater than zero
: This selects stocks with a solid dividend growth history.
5-Year Historical Sales Growth greater than zero
: This represents stocks with a strong record of growing revenue.
5-Year Historical EPS Growth greater than zero
: This represents stocks with a solid earnings growth history.
Next 3–5 Year EPS Growth Rate greater than zero
: This represents the rate at which a company’s earnings are expected to grow. Improving earnings should help companies sustain dividend payments.
Price/Cash Flow less than M-Industry
: A ratio less than M-industry indicates that the stock is undervalued in that industry and that an investor needs to pay less for better cash flow generated by the company.
52-Week Price Change greater than S&P 500 (Market Weight)
: This ensures that the stock appreciated more than the S&P 500 over the past year.
Top Zacks Rank
: Stocks having a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) generally outperform their peers in all types of market environments.
Growth Score
of B or better
: Our research shows that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 offer the best upside potential.
Just these few criteria narrowed down the universe from over 7,700 stocks to just 14.
Here are five of the 14 stocks that fit the bill:
Oregon-based
Lithia Motors Inc.
LAD
is one of the leading automotive retailers of new and used vehicles, and related services in the United States. The stock saw solid earnings estimate revision of $1.25 over the past 30 days for this year and has estimated earnings growth of 93%. It has a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of A. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here
.
Chicago-based
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
JLL
is a leading full-service real estate firm that provides corporate, financial and investment management services to corporations and other real estate owners, users and investors worldwide. The company has delivered an average four-quarter earnings surprise of 151.94% and has an expected earnings growth rate of 62.5%. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1 and Growth Score of A.
Illinois-based
Deere & Company
DE
is the world’s largest producer of agricultural equipment, manufacturing agricultural machinery since 1837 under the iconic John Deere brand with its signature green and yellow color scheme. The stock saw solid earnings estimate revision of 32 cents over the past 30 days for the fiscal year (ending October 2021) and has an estimated earnings growth rate of 117.5%. It carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has a Growth Score of B.
Massachusetts-based
Watts Water Technologies Inc.
WTS
designs, manufactures and sells various water safety and flow control products for the water quality, water conservation, water safety and water flow control markets. The company saw solid earnings estimate revision of 10 cents over the past 30 days for this year with an expected earnings growth rate of 36.1%. Watts Water has a Zacks Rank #2 and Growth Score of B.
Arizona-based
Microchip Technology Incorporated
MCHP
is engaged in developing and manufacturing of microcontrollers, memory and analog and interface products for embedded control systems, which are small, low-power computers designed to perform specific tasks. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 28.4% for fiscal year (ending March 2022) and delivered an average earnings surprise of 5.73% over the past four quarters. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2 and Growth Score of B.
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.
Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.
Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at:
https://www.zacks.com/performance
.
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