Why Ritchie Bros. (RBA) 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. But for income investors, generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments is your primary focus.

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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Ritchie Bros. In Focus

Ritchie Bros. (RBA) is headquartered in Burnaby, and is in the Business Services sector. The stock has seen a price change of -7.78% since the start of the year. Currently paying a dividend of $0.2 per share, the company has a dividend yield of 2.02%. In comparison, the Auction and Valuation Services industry's yield is 0.19%, while the S&P 500's yield is 1.98%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.80 is up 5.3% from last year. In the past five-year period, Ritchie Bros. has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.72%. 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. Ritchie Bros.'s current payout ratio is 60%. This means it paid out 60% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, RBA expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 is $1.49 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 12.03%.

Bottom Line

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.

Big, established firms that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options, but it's fairly uncommon to see high-growth businesses or tech start-ups offer their stockholders a dividend. 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, RBA 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).