Dividend.com has added a technology company to the Best Dividend Stocks List and removed a regional utility firm from the list.
As one of the elder statesmen of the technology sector, our pick made a name for itself during the internet and dotcom boom of the early 2000s. By proving to be the necessary backbone of the internet, our pick managed to survive the bust with plenty of earnings and cash flow firepower.
But our pick is no tech dinosaur.
Since the dotcom days, our pick has pivoted into a variety of high-tech and exciting areas. Selling equipment has taken a backseat to services, software and juicy recurring revenues. With its hands in everything from big data applications and cybersecurity to the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing, our pick has the ability to profit in almost every technological trend out there. That makes it a potent and powerful all-in-one play on the sector.
And that fact shows up in the firm’s huge cash flows, monster cash balance and continued commitment to raising its dividend. For investors, our technology pick’s inclusion on the Best Dividend Stocks List is the culmination of these efforts.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
- Low forward P/E of 18, especially when compared to the tech industry average of 36!
- Since paying its first dividend in 2011, it has grown its payout by 383%.
- Extensive portfolio of high-margined service, software and recurring revenue business lines.
- More than $70 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet at the end of last year, with over $13 billion in cash flows from its operations.
- Low payout ratio of 52% and healthy yield of 2.86%.
Soft Removal of a Regional Utility from the Best Dividend Stocks List
We added this utility stock to the Best Dividend Stocks List back in mid-2016. However, to make room for our top tech pick, we are performing a soft removal of it from the list. The utility firm’s name still features strong metrics in our DARS model and, in fact, scores very high across several of our measures. However, in recent quarters, the firm’s share-price appreciation has failed to live up to its potential. And a few problems regarding its generation fleet have provided enough resistance to zap its forward momentum. As a result, its overall DARS score has fallen from 3.9 to 3.8. With that, the regional utility has been removed from the Best Dividend Stocks List but remains an excellent pick for income seekers.
See how this West Coast luxury REIT is fortifying its position on the Best Dividend Stocks List here.
