Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) Announces $0.24 Quarterly Dividend

Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th.

Provident Financial Services has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. Provident Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 45.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Provident Financial Services to earn $2.04 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 47.1%.

Provident Financial Services Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE PFS opened at $15.54 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $14.75 and its 200-day moving average is $15.66. The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.71 and a beta of 1.07. Provident Financial Services has a twelve month low of $13.21 and a twelve month high of $19.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $114.48 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $114.50 million. Provident Financial Services had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 7.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Provident Financial Services will post 1.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Provident Financial Services

In other Provident Financial Services news, Director Robert Mcnerney sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.86, for a total transaction of $89,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,223.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 4.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Provident Financial Services from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. TheStreet cut shares of Provident Financial Services from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. DA Davidson raised shares of Provident Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $15.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Provident Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Provident Financial Services from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Provident Financial Services currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.00.

Provident Financial Services Company Profile

Provident Financial Services, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Provident Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts, as well as IRA products.