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The Dividend Stock Printing Cash While The Market Chases Noise
This high-yield dividend payer skips growth stories and focuses on cash discipline, margin control, and reliable payouts. A quiet income stock doing precisely what it should.
Noah Zelvis
December 29, 2025
In partnership with
This is a dividend stock that turns up, does its job, and pays you for sticking around. No hype, no drama, just a business built to keep cash flowing and reward patient investors.
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In a market obsessed with growth stories and AI headlines, some of the most reliable income opportunities continue to sit well off the radar. Ennis, Inc. (NYSE: EBF) is one of those names.
It is not trying to reinvent an industry or chase the latest trend. Instead, it is doing something far more valuable for dividend investors: generating steady cash and handing a meaningful portion of it back to shareholders year after year.
Ennis operates in mature, essential niches where demand does not disappear overnight, and customer relationships are built for the long term.
That stability has been translated into a business model designed to weather economic slowdowns, protect margins, and support regular shareholder payouts.
EBF is exactly the type of stock that can strengthen your portfolio when markets become choppy.
It offers something many portfolios lack: predictability, discipline, and a dividend story that relies on neither optimistic forecasts nor aggressive assumptions.
This is a stock built to be held, not traded. And in the current environment, that makes Ennis worth a closer look.
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A business essential with serious staying power
Founded in 1909, Ennis is built around simplicity and scale.
The company designs, manufactures, and distributes business forms, commercial print products, and branded stationery through a vast network of independent distributors.
It is not a consumer-facing brand, and that works in its favor. Demand is driven by everyday business needs rather than discretionary spending trends.
Ennis operates dozens of manufacturing and distribution facilities across the US, allowing it to serve customers efficiently while keeping freight costs and turnaround times under control.
Its broad product catalogue and national footprint make it difficult for smaller competitors to replicate the model at scale, particularly in a mature industry where efficiency matters more than innovation.
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A business designed to keep cash flowing
What really stands out is the operating model's discipline. Ennis keeps capital expenditure modest, avoids over-expansion, and focuses on protecting margins rather than chasing volume at any cost.
Acquisitions, when they occur, are targeted and conservative, aimed at strengthening existing capabilities rather than transforming the business.
This approach has helped Ennis stay profitable across economic cycles and maintain a strong balance sheet, giving management flexibility when conditions tighten.
For dividend investors, that matters. Stable operations underpin stable cash generation, and stable cash generation is what keeps dividends flowing.
Action: EBF works best as a core income holding. If you prioritize durability and cash discipline over rapid growth and are happy to let a steady operator do its work in the background, it's a stock that you may think of as a staple of your portfolio. |
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Recent earnings: margins doing the heavy lifting
The latest quarterly update from Ennis was a perfect snapshot of what this business does best. Growth was modest, but execution was solid, and profitability moved in the right direction.
Quarterly revenue came in at just over $100 million, broadly flat year on year. That will not excite momentum investors, but that was never the point.
The real story sat below the surface. Earnings climbed, with profit rising to roughly $10.8 million and earnings per share increasing to $0.42.
That improvement came despite a challenging backdrop for manufacturers and speaks to tight cost control across the business.
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Efficiency over expansion
Margins were the standout. Gross margin rose to nearly 32%, a meaningful improvement from last year.
This tells you management is doing exactly what income investors want to see: protecting profitability rather than chasing low-quality growth.
Pricing discipline, operational efficiency, and a focus on higher-margin work all played a role.
Looking over the broader nine-month period, revenue was slightly lower, but earnings held up well and margins remained stronger than the prior year.
That consistency reinforces the idea that Ennis is built to manage through slower periods without putting shareholder returns at risk.
The takeaway here is simple. Ennis does not need strong revenue growth to perform.
As long as margins stay healthy and costs remain under control, the cash engine keeps turning. That is far more important than headline sales for your earnings.
The real reason investors hold this stock
EBF currently pays a 25-cent quarterly dividend, yielding 5.48% and standing out in a market where dependable income is increasingly hard to find.
This is not a yield propped up by aggressive leverage or optimistic assumptions.
The payout is supported by a conservative operating model, steady cash generation, and a balance sheet that gives management room to maneuver.
Ennis has built a reputation for treating the dividend as a priority, even during periods when revenue growth has slowed.
A dividend built on discipline
What makes this payout appealing is its sustainability. Capital expenditure remains controlled, debt levels are manageable, and the business does not require heavy reinvestment to stand still.
That leaves plenty of flexibility to continue returning cash to shareholders without putting the company under pressure.
The yield also does the heavy lifting for total returns.
When you combine a high single-digit income stream with a stable share price profile, Ennis becomes the kind of stock that quietly compounds over time rather than relying on market timing.
Action: Think of EBF as a buy-and-hold strategy. The current yield provides immediate cash flow, while the underlying business offers the stability needed to maintain that income stream. |
Recognizing the red flag
The biggest risk with Ennis is also its defining characteristic. This is a mature business operating in slow-moving markets. If you are looking for growth, you will not find much of it here.
Revenue is closely tied to business activity levels, and during prolonged economic slowdowns, demand for printed materials and promotional products can soften.
There is also structural pressure in parts of the print industry. Digital alternatives continue to chip away at specific product categories.
While Ennis has adapted well so far, it is not immune to long-term shifts in how businesses communicate and market themselves.
Over time, this can limit pricing power and cap top-line growth.
Yield can cut both ways
rom an income perspective, a high yield always deserves scrutiny. If earnings were to deteriorate materially or margins were to come under sustained pressure, the dividend could become harder to defend.
While Ennis has a strong track record of discipline, the payout ultimately depends on the business's continued ability to generate steady cash.
In short, this is not a stock to buy for capital appreciation. If you need growth to justify your position, you may find the story underwhelming, particularly if the broader market rotates back toward higher-growth names.
The bottom line: a stock that knows its job
The appeal of EBF comes down to clarity. This is a company that understands precisely what income investors want and structures the business around delivering it.
There is no growth-at-any-cost mindset, no financial engineering, and no reliance on favorable market conditions to make the numbers work.
The yield pays you to be patient, while the business continues to do what it has done for years: operate steadily, protect profitability, and return cash to shareholders.
That’s all for today’s edition of the Dividend Brief.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any feedback or dividend stocks you want me to take a look at, just reply to this email!
—Noah Zelvis
DividendBrief.com