South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.15 Per Share

South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share on Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 28th. This is an increase from South Plains Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14.

South Plains Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 54.9% annually over the last three years. South Plains Financial has a payout ratio of 20.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect South Plains Financial to earn $2.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.4%.

South Plains Financial Trading Up 0.1 %

South Plains Financial stock opened at $35.21 on Friday. South Plains Financial has a 12-month low of $24.05 and a 12-month high of $35.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $578.11 million, a PE ratio of 9.41 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.57.

South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.10. South Plains Financial had a return on equity of 11.42% and a net margin of 16.53%. The firm had revenue of $71.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $46.50 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that South Plains Financial will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Curtis C. Griffith sold 1,599 shares of South Plains Financial stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total value of $49,569.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 996,898 shares in the company, valued at $30,903,838. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Noe G. Valles purchased 50,000 shares of South Plains Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $30.00 per share, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 336,437 shares in the company, valued at $10,093,110. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Curtis C. Griffith sold 1,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $49,569.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 996,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,903,838. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 25.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SPFI has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on South Plains Financial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of South Plains Financial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th.

South Plains Financial Company Profile

South Plains Financial, Inc operates as a bank holding company for City Bank that provides commercial and consumer financial services to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals. The company operates through two segments, Banking and Insurance. It offers deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, interest-bearing products, savings accounts, and certificate of deposits.