Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.23

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.23 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th.

Heritage Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Heritage Financial has a payout ratio of 50.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Heritage Financial to earn $1.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.7%.

Heritage Financial Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $22.36 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.92. Heritage Financial has a 52-week low of $15.50 and a 52-week high of $23.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $775.67 million, a PE ratio of 16.81 and a beta of 0.53.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $56.36 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.27 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.95% and a net margin of 14.59%. On average, analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Heritage Financial from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. 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.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.50.

Heritage Financial Company Profile

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.