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

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, Zacks reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th.

Heritage Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Heritage Financial has a 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 Price Performance

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

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $81.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 in the prior year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Heritage Financial will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on HFWA shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Stephens boosted their price objective on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

Heritage Financial Company Profile

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.