Community Bank System, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.46 (NYSE:CBU)

Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.46 per share by the bank on Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%.

Community Bank System has raised its dividend by an average of 2.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 33 consecutive years. Community Bank System has a payout ratio of 39.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Community Bank System to earn $3.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.1%.

Community Bank System Stock Performance

Shares of Community Bank System stock traded up $0.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $62.25. The company's stock had a trading volume of 188,736 shares, compared to its average volume of 188,493. Community Bank System has a one year low of $41.50 and a one year high of $73.39. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $65.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.39 and a beta of 0.67.

Community Bank System (NYSE:CBU - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.05). Community Bank System had a net margin of 18.82% and a return on equity of 10.52%. The business had revenue of $188.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Community Bank System will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John F. Whipple sold 3,937 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.10, for a total value of $287,794.70. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,823 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,661.30. This represents a 40.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.78% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on CBU. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Community Bank System from $64.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Community Bank System from a "market perform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Community Bank System in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Community Bank System currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $65.25.

About Community Bank System

Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, institutional, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.

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