Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Increases Dividend to $0.24 Per Share

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. This is an increase from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23.

Heritage Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Heritage Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 43.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Heritage Financial to earn $1.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.0%.

Heritage Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $24.65 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $841.80 million, a P/E ratio of 22.82 and a beta of 0.57. Heritage Financial has a 52 week low of $16.55 and a 52 week high of $27.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $25.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.24.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. Sell-side analysts expect that Heritage Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heritage Financial

In related news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of Heritage Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total transaction of $78,837.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,153.50. This trade represents a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on HFWA shares. Stephens boosted their price target on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.00.

About Heritage Financial

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.