South Plains Financial, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 (NASDAQ:SPFI)

South Plains Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPFI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share on Monday, August 12th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 29th.

South Plains Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 54.9% annually over the last three years. South Plains Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect South Plains Financial to earn $2.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.5%.

South Plains Financial Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ SPFI opened at $33.08 on Friday. South Plains Financial has a twelve month low of $23.75 and a twelve month high of $33.85. The stock has a market cap of $543.17 million, a PE ratio of 8.84 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.10. South Plains Financial had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 16.53%. The company had revenue of $71.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $46.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that South Plains Financial will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Curtis C. Griffith sold 7,830 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.12, for a total transaction of $204,519.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,055,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,581,858.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 25.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on SPFI shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on South Plains Financial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Hovde Group lifted their target price on shares of South Plains Financial from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

About South Plains Financial

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.