Heritage Financial Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.23 (NASDAQ:HFWA)

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.23 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th.

Heritage Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% 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 50.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Heritage Financial to earn $1.85 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 49.7%.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of HFWA stock opened at $23.23 on Tuesday. Heritage Financial has a 1 year low of $16.38 and a 1 year high of $23.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $801.44 million, a P/E ratio of 21.51 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $81.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.17 million. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Heritage Financial will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HFWA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stephens lifted their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.