Peoples Financial Services Corp. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.62 (NASDAQ:PFIS)

Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.6175 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.47 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Peoples Financial Services has increased its dividend by an average of 11.1% annually over the last three years. Peoples Financial Services has a payout ratio of 36.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Peoples Financial Services to earn $5.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.47 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.7%.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Performance

Shares of Peoples Financial Services stock traded up $0.87 during trading on Thursday, hitting $53.70. 11,259 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,890. Peoples Financial Services has a 52-week low of $36.26 and a 52-week high of $59.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $536.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.14 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.17.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.16 by ($0.17). Peoples Financial Services had a return on equity of 7.73% and a net margin of 3.00%. On average, research analysts forecast that Peoples Financial Services will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PFIS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Hovde Group raised their price objective on Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Stephens upgraded Peoples Financial Services from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Peoples Financial Services Company Profile

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts.