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

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 annualized dividend 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 raised its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Heritage Financial has a payout ratio of 41.3% meaning 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 $0.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.9%.

Heritage Financial Stock Down 0.8 %

HFWA traded down $0.20 on Friday, hitting $24.65. The company had a trading volume of 238,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 160,656. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. 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.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 12.27%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Heritage Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity at Heritage Financial

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

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.