Provident Financial Services, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NYSE:PFS)

Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th.

Provident Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. Provident Financial Services has a dividend payout ratio of 45.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Provident Financial Services to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

Shares of PFS stock opened at $14.46 on Friday. Provident Financial Services has a 52-week low of $13.21 and a 52-week high of $19.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.04 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $14.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.65.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The savings and loans company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.03. Provident Financial Services had a return on equity of 7.35% and a net margin of 16.78%. The firm had revenue of $114.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.50 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. Provident Financial Services’s quarterly revenue was down 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Provident Financial Services will post 1.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert Mcnerney sold 5,000 shares of Provident Financial Services stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.86, for a total value of $89,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,223.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 4.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Provident Financial Services

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Provident Financial Services by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 650,642 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $11,731,000 after buying an additional 298,744 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Provident Financial Services by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 53,282 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $961,000 after buying an additional 1,920 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in shares of Provident Financial Services by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 123,580 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $2,228,000 after buying an additional 11,118 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Provident Financial Services by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 187,520 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $3,382,000 after buying an additional 48,074 shares during the period. Finally, OLD Mission Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Provident Financial Services in the 4th quarter valued at about $590,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PFS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TheStreet lowered Provident Financial Services from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Provident Financial Services from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Provident Financial Services from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Provident Financial Services from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Provident Financial Services currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.50.

Provident Financial Services Company Profile

Provident Financial Services, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Provident Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts, as well as IRA products.