Independent Bank Corp. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.57 (NASDAQ:INDB)

Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a dividend of 0.57 per share by the bank on Monday, January 6th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 30th.

Independent Bank has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Independent Bank has a payout ratio of 44.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Independent Bank to earn $5.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.3%.

Independent Bank Stock Performance

NASDAQ:INDB traded up $0.74 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $71.54. The stock had a trading volume of 118,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 279,107. Independent Bank has a 12-month low of $45.11 and a 12-month high of $77.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.18. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.51 and a beta of 0.76.

Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $250.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.24 million. Independent Bank had a return on equity of 6.74% and a net margin of 20.26%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.38 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Independent Bank will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Independent Bank from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James raised Independent Bank from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $74.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Independent Bank from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.00.

About Independent Bank

Independent Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Rockland Trust Company that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in the United States. The company provides interest checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as demand deposits and time certificates of deposit.