Premier Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:PFC) Declares $0.31 Quarterly Dividend

Premier Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:PFC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share on Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd.

Premier Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Premier Financial has a payout ratio of 52.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Premier Financial to earn $2.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.7%.

Premier Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ PFC opened at $20.50 on Thursday. Premier Financial has a twelve month low of $13.60 and a twelve month high of $24.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $733.90 million, a P/E ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.40.

Premier Financial (NASDAQ:PFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $108.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.93 million. Premier Financial had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 23.67%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Premier Financial will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on PFC shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Premier Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Hovde Group raised shares of Premier Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.50 price target for the company in a report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Premier Financial from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th.

Insider Activity at Premier Financial

In other news, Director Donald P. Hileman sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.07, for a total transaction of $30,105.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,311 shares in the company, valued at $628,411.77. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Premier Financial Company Profile

Premier Financial Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides various banking services. It offers demand, checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposits and certificates of deposit account registry service; and investment products. The company also provides residential and commercial real estate, commercial, construction, home improvement and home equity, installment, and consumer loans.