If you're an investor looking to increase your passive income for the long term, financials are a great place to start. The financial sector is a diverse industry made up of various types of banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and financial services providers. Many of these companies have been around for a long time and have great track records of paying dividends to shareholders.
Like the broader market, the financial sector is down this year. For example, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF, one of the largest exchange-traded funds representing financials, is down about 9% year to date, about the same as the S&P 500. But this year-to-date decline represents an opportunity to add some great dividend stocks at discounted prices. Here are three top financial stocks that you can add to your portfolio now that will help increases your passive income for years to come.
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1. Blackstone Group
Blackstone Group (BX -2.32%) is an alternative asset manager that invests in sectors like private equity and real estate. It is a massive player in this field with $940 billion in assets under management as of June. Blackstone is home to huge investment funds like the Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust, one of its flagship products, which has ballooned to a $116 billion value since its inception just five years ago.
Blackstone is a little different from your typical dividend stock because it pays a variable dividend based on its performance. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and with Blackstone performing well, this dividend has been growing rapidly. The company paid out $1.91 in dividends in 2020, and then blew this away with $3.57 in payouts in 2021. For 2022, the company has already paid out $4.11, with one quarterly payment left to go. Blackstone yields about 5% on a trailing basis.
And there is reason to believe that Blackstone's assets under management and its dividend payout may grow even more in the future. Some observers believe that more money from institutional investors like pension funds and other large investors will flow into alternative managers like Blackstone as these funds look to increase their returns beyond what they have been earning in the equity and fixed-income markets. This would be a boon for Blackstone and its peers and could lead to a raft of income for Blackstone investors.
2. T. Rowe Price Group
T. Rowe Price Group (TROW -2.50%) is a top financial stock with a long and storied history of shareholder returns. The Baltimore-based investment manager has increased its annual payout for 37 years in a row, making it a Dividend Aristocrat. Shares of T. Rowe Price are down almost 40% over the past year as the stock market's decline has led to a decline in its assets under management (AUM) as its underlying holdings are down, and because some customers have pulled money out of the market. But AUM will increase as the market eventually rises again and the share price will start to recover. In the meantime, investors can enjoy being paid a market-beating dividend that currently yields 3.6%, and feel confident that T. Rowe Price will keep increasing this dividend for years to come.
3. Cincinnati Financial
There aren't many stocks with a longer history of dividend growth than T. Rowe Price, but one of them is right here in the financial sector -- Cincinnati Financial (CINF 1.71%). Only a handful of companies in the entire market have a longer streak of annual dividend increases than the Cincinnati-based insurer, which has gone one step further than being a Dividend Aristocrat and long ago achieved Dividend King status. Cincinnati Financial has now increased its annual dividend payout for 62 years in a row. Cincinnati's management has said its goal over the medium term is to increase its value creation ratio, which measures the growth of its book value plus its dividend, by 10% to 13% a year over the next five years. Shares currently yield about 2.8%, and the dividend is well covered by the company's cash flow. This yield is a bit lower than the other stocks on this list, but investors can buy Cincinnati Financial with the confidence that it will keep increasing its dividend like clockwork.
Investors can bolster their passive income by adding this diverse group of stocks from the financial sector to their portfolios. These companies have been growing their dividends and should continue to do so for years to come.
