Horizon Bancorp, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 (NASDAQ:HBNC)

Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.16 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd.

Horizon Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Horizon Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 37.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Horizon Bancorp to earn $1.66 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.6%.

Horizon Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HBNC traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $16.18. The stock had a trading volume of 173,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 162,074. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $17.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $707.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. Horizon Bancorp has a 1-year low of $11.18 and a 1-year high of $19.18.

Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. Horizon Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 5.89%. The firm had revenue of $102.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $58.23 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Horizon Bancorp will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HBNC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Horizon Bancorp from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of Horizon Bancorp in a research report on Monday, September 30th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Horizon Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st.

About Horizon Bancorp

Horizon Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Horizon Bank that engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. The company offers checking, saving, money market, certificate of deposits, individual retirement accounts, and time deposits, as well as non-interest- and interest-bearing demand deposits.