General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has been named as the ”Top Dividend Stock of the Dow,” according to Dividend Channel, which published its most recent DividendRank report. The report noted that among the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, GE shares displayed both attractive valuation metrics and strong profitability metrics.
For example, the recent GE share price of $24.89 represents a price-to-book ratio of 1.9 and an annual dividend yield of 3.7% — by comparison, the average dividend-paying stock in the Dow yields 2.6% and trades at a price-to-book ratio of 4.6.
The report also cited the strong quarterly dividend history at General Electric, and favorable long-term multi-year growth rates in key fundamental data points. The report stated:
”Dividend investors approaching investing from a value standpoint are generally most interested in researching the strongest most profitable companies, that also happen to be trading at an attractive valuation. That’s what we aim to find using our proprietary DividendRank formula, which ranks the coverage universe based upon our various criteria for both profitability and valuation, to generate a list of the top most ‘interesting’ stocks, meant for investors as a source of ideas that merit further research.”
The Dow dates back to 1896 and is one of the most widely followed indices of large, publicly owned companies based in the U.S.
The current annualized dividend paid by General Electric is 92 cents per share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend has an upcoming ex-date of Feb. 19, 2015.
Below is a long-term dividend history chart for GE, which the report stressed as being of key importance. Indeed, studying a company’s past dividend history can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue.
SLIDESHOW: Best Dividend Paying Stocks Analysts Like in the Dow.
