U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) Announces $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.87%.

U.S. Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. U.S. Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 46.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect U.S. Bancorp to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.5%.

U.S. Bancorp Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:USB traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.66. The stock had a trading volume of 824,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,200,623. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.95. U.S. Bancorp has a twelve month low of $37.81 and a twelve month high of $53.98. The firm has a market cap of $80.59 billion, a PE ratio of 15.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $6.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.90 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that U.S. Bancorp will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Bancorp announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 12th that allows the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at U.S. Bancorp

In other news, insider Jodi L. Richard sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.03, for a total value of $1,225,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 129,790 shares in the company, valued at $6,363,603.70. This represents a 16.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on USB shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $48.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Stephens upped their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 price objective on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, U.S. Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.27.

About U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.