Dividend Aristocrat on Sale? Down 18% in 2026 + Record Dividend Yield for This Dividend Stock

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Welcome back to the Diplomats YouTube channel. You've got your boys here, Lanny and Bird, the Dividend Diplomats.

[00:00:05]This dividend aristocrat, it dropped 6% on Friday after earnings. They are down over 18% year to date. That dividend yield, Lanny, is hitting record highs at 2 and a.5%. Wow.

[00:00:15]>> We have never covered this stock here on this channel. I can't wait to introduce this dividend aristocrat to the diplomat universe, baby.

[00:00:22]>> Guys, hit that subscribe button. Make sure you take a second, hit that thumbs up, give us a nice like on this video as we try to get to 250 likes this morning here on a Tuesday. So, Bird's got a stock here. Again, the market overall now is up, setting new record highs, but as Bert said, this company is setting new record highs in terms of dividend yield. Why? Because the stock is down about 33% over the last 52 weeks. And Bert, what happened specifically on Friday, April 24th?

[00:00:55]>> Company released earnings. Which company released earnings? Eerie Insurance, ticker symbol.

[00:01:03]>> ER I beautiful music to my ears. And this is always our favorite because they are a very they're large, but they don't advertise a lot. Property and insurance casually company. So you get your home, you get your auto, you get some other services through them, but they don't have the big brand that your progressives have. They don't have the mayhem from All State. They're just quiet. They go about their business.

[00:01:28]>> State Farm guy.

[00:01:29]>> Yeah. How can I forget about Jake? Like you never remember about Eerie, but what I found about Erie is every once in a while when I go through my insurance, >> they paid money.

[00:01:38]>> They do pay money. They print money for themselves. But they hit the brokers a lot. Like the brokers, you go to your broker, you don't want to shop your own insurance. They always come back with an eerie eerie insurance quote. That's what I found about them. That's how most people get into the Eerie network versus seeing >> or if you're in Ohio, you just drive two hours, two and a half hours east and you're in Eerie.

[00:01:59]>> That's true. They don't even market that much in Erie. That's like they're just spend a lot on marketing advertising.

[00:02:05]So, what happened in this earnings release? It was more about the headline versus the substance. The headline is what scared people. They missed the expectations by 18 cents. Earnings per share were $2.88. 18 below those expectations of 306. Wow. So below expectations, but they're growing income. They're growing earnings per share. Earnings per share was 265 during the first quarter last year. They're 288 this quarter. That's as huge. 23 cent growth on a 265. We're almost talking 10% EPS growth year-over-year. I mean, what is to hate about that, >> right? Their revenue went up 2% during this period. Their operating income went up 10%. Investment income, which is a huge driver for insurance companies as they need to invest all the cash they get for premiums to help cover those losses. Yeah, they're up 13% compared to last year. Net income, as you said, was up 9%. So overall, earnings in grow were growing, revenue was growing, income was growing, just didn't miss the market's expectations, and that's what sent it down tumbling.

[00:03:13]>> Yeah. Sent it down to $23362.

[00:03:17]And I mean, this company seems to be one of those um you know, obviously you you can't sleep on air. You've got to now wake up where they're at because when we look at the dividend diplomat stock screener, guys, which is our patent pending stock screening metrics, the PE, the payout, the growth, the yield, you'll realize you need to add this to your stock watch list. Obviously, not professional advice, but you'll see that these metrics are screaming a buy this stock right now.

[00:03:48]>> All right, so at 23,3362, that earnings for shares is 1351. And that gives you a price earnings ratio of about 17.5 which is much below according to seeking Alpha their 5-year average price earnings ratio which is over 30x. So they are a screaming discount compared to their historical standards and below the S&P 500.

[00:04:07]>> Yeah. Screaming a discount almost in half of what their PE normally is. When we slide into that dividend payout ratio again, dividend payout ratio is the safety of the dividend. We like it between 40 and 60% because we're financial freedom investors. We're trying to get their passive income via dividend income. So, we like a little bit extra payout, which is why the 40% kind of floor is because that means they're paying out more of their earnings. Eerie is in a perfect spot.

[00:04:37]Rings bells of J&J over here with a 43.3% payout ratio based on a $585 dividend.

[00:04:47]>> Beautiful. their dividend growth rate, fiveyear growth rate 7% and they've increased it for 35 years. So they are a dividend aristocrat which is a company that's increased their dividend for 25 consecutive years and a December 2025 they stayed true to that 5year growth area average Lanny they increased that dividend 7%. So, right on their average, >> right on the money, right on the average. Why? Because, hey, they're growing net income over 8 to n 10% per year. So, they can afford to increase that dividend 7 8 n 10% per year. Now, because they have now fallen this year about 18 and a half percent again since April of last year about 33% that dividend yield is now at a height that it rarely ever is guys and that is a 2 and a half% dividend yield which pairs very well with this 7% dividend growth rate.

[00:05:40]>> Yeah, that's a great combination. We that's that hits our sweet spot. That hits like the barrel of the bat right in the middle where it hits that like perfect sound and you just know that ball is going to fly. Year to date, they're down 18 and a half%. The last 52 weeks are down 32%. The last 5 years they are only up 9%. I'm pulling up their stock chart here. Their 52- week high was it says $421, which was $412, which is right around March 2025. their peak, Lanny, over the last five years, they hit $542 around um October 2024. So, they are they've lost half that share price.

[00:06:22]>> Guys, 12 million in market cap. What are we going to do here? Bert, what's your thoughts on Eerie Insurance?

[00:06:30]>> It's interesting, right? Um it's obviously a great company. They're very conservative. I think that's what you're going to take away from. They're conservative. They're not going to blow you away with growth. They're not going to blow you away, but they're just going to continue pumping out high singledigit low double-digit growth in a lot of those key metrics. 2 and a half% yield is interesting with the 7%. I personally would love to see Erie Island right around that 200 mark. I think that's where it gets really interesting and possibly in the buy zone. That brings the yield to almost 3%. So, if I really want to say this, I will say $195 brings it to 3% yield for Eerie Island. So, if you get Eerie Island, not Erie Island, it's coffee shop in Cleveland. If you get Yuri insurance at $195, I think that to me is a buy zone. You get that 3% yield, but we're not quite there yet.

[00:07:16]>> What about you guys? After you've liked this video, will you buy Eerie Insurance stock here at $233, guys, and change to get that 2 and a half% yield? or like Bert, are you going to try to wait and see if they get closer to that $200 threshold to get closer to that 3% threshold? Let us know your feedback on this stock in the comments. Guys, >> you haven't already, subscribe to the channel, give this video a thumbs up, and remember, you're either with us or you're short against us. Jack, >> that was Bert, guys, and Lanny from the Dividend Diplomats. Over and