With a new month upon us, now is a great time to think about loading up your investment portfolio with some top dividend-paying stocks. One particular FTSE 250 firm that’s grabbing my attention right now is TBC Bank Group (LSE: TBCG). Why? The possibility of some brilliant share price gains when third-year results are released on Thursday 14 November.
The Georgian banking colossus reported some truly stunning profits growth in the first half of 2019 and there’s no reason why another top trading release should not be in the offing.
The rate of economic growth in the Eurasian nation certainly gives plenty to look forward to – official figures showing a 5.7% GDP rise in the three months to September.
A better banking buy!
It might be tempting for investors to stick with Lloyds or other familiar banking names in more historically stable markets like the UK. However, I think that the rate at which the Georgian economy is expanding is hard to ignore, as is the huge investment TBC is making to improve its digital operations and product ranges to keep growing its customer base.
The World Bank expects economic conditions to remain solid for the banking giant, too, and is predicting GDP increases of 4.3% and 4.5% in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Sure, this might be a little lower than current growth rates in the near term (the body predicts a 4.4% rise this year). But compare this with the prospect of insipid UK growth that the likes of Lloyds and its peers have to contend with next year and possibly beyond as Brexit drags on.
At current prices TBC trades on a dirt-cheap forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 5.4 times and boasts a big 5.1% dividend yield for 2019, which smashes the corresponding UK mid-cap figure of 3.3% to smithereens. I believe these figures make it pretty hard to ignore.
10%+ dividend yields!
The frantic buying of Persimmon (LSE: PSN) shares in the first half of October has petered out more recently, the market having calmed down following Britain’s avoidance of the no-deal Brexit trapdoor at the end of last month.
To this Fool, the FTSE 100 housebuilder still looks pretty undervalued, though. At current prices it sports a forward P/E ratio of 8.5 times and a bulging corresponding dividend yield of 10.3%. This clearly isn’t providing the catalyst for share picker interest right now though I reckon the release of fresh trading details on Thursday 7 November could do.
Persimmon punched a 4% fall in revenues and a 1% drop in pre-tax profits in the first half, though this was to be expected as it built around 500 fewer homes from the year before as it prioritised quality over quantity.
All things considered, trading remains robust at the company, underpinned by strong first-time buyer demand and a chronic shortage of new homes. And I expect this to remain so in 2020, as next week’s financial update will no doubt confirm.
