Unity Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTY) Increases Dividend to $0.14 Per Share

Unity Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNTY) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. This is a positive change from Unity Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

Unity Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 13.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Unity Bancorp has a payout ratio of 9.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Unity Bancorp to earn $5.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.6%.

Unity Bancorp Stock Down 0.8 %

UNTY opened at $46.16 on Friday. Unity Bancorp has a 1 year low of $25.60 and a 1 year high of $51.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $46.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. The company has a market cap of $460.95 million, a PE ratio of 11.37 and a beta of 1.03.

Unity Bancorp (NASDAQ:UNTY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Unity Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 25.24%. Sell-side analysts expect that Unity Bancorp will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Unity Bancorp

In other Unity Bancorp news, Director Peter E. Maricondo sold 2,800 shares of Unity Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.74, for a total value of $125,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,768,214.28. The trade was a 6.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP James Joseph Donovan sold 1,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.88, for a total value of $52,790.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $243,178. This trade represents a 17.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,758 shares of company stock valued at $700,874 over the last three months. 28.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $54.00 price target (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Unity Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (up from $51.00) on shares of Unity Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, January 16th.

About Unity Bancorp

Unity Bancorp, Inc operates as a bank holding company for Unity Bank that provides range of commercial and retail banking services to individuals, small and medium sized businesses, and professional communities. It offers personal and business checking accounts, time deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, and retirement accounts, as well as noninterest and interest-bearing demand deposits.