Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.24 Per Share

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. This is a boost from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23.

Heritage Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Heritage Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 43.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Heritage Financial to earn $1.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.0%.

Heritage Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HFWA opened at $24.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market capitalization of $841.80 million, a P/E ratio of 22.82 and a beta of 0.57. Heritage Financial has a 12 month low of $16.55 and a 12 month high of $27.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $25.10 and a 200-day moving average of $23.20.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Heritage Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total value of $78,837.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,153.50. This trade represents a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on HFWA shares. Stephens increased their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Heritage Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

About Heritage Financial

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.