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Why Hanover Insurance Group (THG) is a Top Dividend Stock for Your Portfolio

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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.

While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, income investors hone in on 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.

Hanover Insurance Group in Focus

Hanover Insurance Group (THG - Free Report) is headquartered in Worcester, and is in the Finance sector. The stock has seen a price change of 5.74% since the start of the year. The insurance company is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.9 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.2%. This compares to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.51% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.58%.

Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.60 is up 4.3% from last year. Hanover Insurance Group has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis over the last 5 years for an average annual increase of 6.96%. 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. Hanover Insurance's current payout ratio is 27%. This means it paid out 27% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.

Earnings growth looks solid for THG for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 is $14.37 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 7.72%.

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.

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 THG is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).


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