Provident Financial Services, Inc Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NYSE:PFS)

Provident Financial Services, Inc (NYSE:PFS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 29th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th.

Provident Financial Services has increased its dividend by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years. Provident Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 42.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Provident Financial Services to earn $2.55 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 37.6%.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

NYSE:PFS traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $22.54. The stock had a trading volume of 67,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 947,731. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.95 billion, a PE ratio of 9.59 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $21.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.66. Provident Financial Services has a 52 week low of $15.92 and a 52 week high of $23.98.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $225.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $225.62 million. Provident Financial Services had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 21.95%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Provident Financial Services will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Provident Financial Services declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, January 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.81 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the savings and loans company to reacquire up to 0.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Provident Financial Services

Provident Financial Services, Inc is the bank holding company for Provident Bank, a regional commercial bank headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The company operates a network of full-service branches across New Jersey, the New York metropolitan area and eastern Pennsylvania, offering a range of personal and business banking solutions.

Its core products and services include checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential mortgage loans, commercial real estate financing and small-business lending.