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.

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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

Canadian Imperial Bank in Focus

Canadian Imperial Bank (CM) is headquartered in Toronto, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 33.71% since the start of the year. The bank and financial services company is paying out a dividend of $0.67 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 4.14% compared to the Banks - Foreign industry's yield of 3.84% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.54%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $2.67 is up 0.6% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Canadian Imperial Bank has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.05%. Any future dividend growth will depend on both earnings growth and the company's payout ratio; a payout ratio is the proportion of a firm's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Canadian Imperial Bank's current payout ratio is 49%, meaning it paid out 49% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for CM for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 is $5.49 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 0.92%.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. But, not every company offers 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. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, CM 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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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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