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

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation in Focus

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK) is headquartered in New York, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 11.84% since the start of the year. The company is paying out a dividend of $0.47 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.19% compared to the Banks - Major Regional industry's yield of 3.21% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.5%.

Taking a look at the company's dividend growth, its current annualized dividend of $1.88 is up 5.6% from last year. In the past five-year period, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has increased its dividend 4 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 9.74%. 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. The Bank of New York Mellon's current payout ratio is 31%. This means it paid out 31% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

BK is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $6.86 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 13.76%.

Bottom Line

Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide 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. 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 BK is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

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