Artesian Resources (ARTNA) Could Be a Great Choice

All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. 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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.

Artesian Resources in Focus

Headquartered in Newark, Artesian Resources (ARTNA) is a Utilities stock that has seen a price change of 8.55% so far this year. The water resource management company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.31 per share, with a dividend yield of 3.58%. This compares to the Utility - Water Supply industry's yield of 2.45% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.54%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $1.23 is up 4.1% from last year. In the past five-year period, Artesian Resources has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 4.17%. 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. Right now, Artesian Resources's payout ratio is 58%, which means it paid out 58% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

ARTNA is expecting earnings to expand this fiscal year as well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $2.16 per share, with earnings expected to increase 9.09% from the year ago period.

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.

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. During periods of rising interest rates, income investors must be mindful that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle. With that in mind, ARTNA presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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