South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) Announces $0.15 Quarterly Dividend

South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%.

South Plains Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 23.1% per year over the last three years. South Plains Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 19.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect South Plains Financial to earn $2.70 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.2%.

South Plains Financial Stock Up 1.0 %

SPFI stock opened at $34.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $571.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.35. South Plains Financial has a 52-week low of $24.05 and a 52-week high of $40.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.29. South Plains Financial had a return on equity of 10.39% and a net margin of 15.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that South Plains Financial will post 2.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at South Plains Financial

In related news, CEO Curtis C. Griffith sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.50, for a total transaction of $1,675,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 865,967 shares in the company, valued at $29,009,894.50. The trade was a 5.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 25.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of South Plains Financial from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th.

South Plains Financial Company Profile

South Plains Financial, Inc operates as a bank holding company for City Bank that provides commercial and consumer financial services to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals. The company operates through two segments, Banking and Insurance. It offers deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, interest-bearing products, savings accounts, and certificate of deposits.