Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB) to Issue $0.57 Quarterly Dividend

Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be given a dividend of 0.57 per share by the bank on Monday, January 6th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 30th.

Independent Bank has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Independent Bank has a payout ratio of 45.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Independent Bank to earn $5.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.3%.

Independent Bank Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of INDB opened at $69.48 on Wednesday. Independent Bank has a fifty-two week low of $45.11 and a fifty-two week high of $77.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.95 billion, a PE ratio of 15.40 and a beta of 0.76.

Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. Independent Bank had a net margin of 20.26% and a return on equity of 6.74%. The company had revenue of $250.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.38 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Independent Bank will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on INDB shares. Raymond James upgraded Independent Bank from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Independent Bank from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Independent Bank from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.00.

About Independent Bank

Independent Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Rockland Trust Company that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in the United States. The company provides interest checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as demand deposits and time certificates of deposit.