Whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities, all investors love seeing their portfolios score big returns. However, 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 account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.

Ameren in Focus

Ameren (AEE) is headquartered in St Louis, and is in the Utilities sector. The stock has seen a price change of 10.65% since the start of the year. The utility is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.71 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.88%. This compares to the Utility - Electric Power industry's yield of 3.15% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.57%.

In terms of dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $2.84 is up 6% from last year. Ameren has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 7.23%. 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. Ameren's current payout ratio is 58%. This means it paid out 58% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Looking at this fiscal year, AEE expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $4.93 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 6.48%.

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. However, not all companies offer a quarterly payout.

For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers their shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that AEE 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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