Associated Banc-Corp Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.23 (NYSE:ASB)

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.23 per share by the bank on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.73%.

Associated Banc has raised its dividend by an average of 5.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Associated Banc has a dividend payout ratio of 33.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Associated Banc to earn $2.31 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 39.8%.

Associated Banc Price Performance

ASB stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $24.66. 2,528,035 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,801,879. Associated Banc has a 52 week low of $19.40 and a 52 week high of $28.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Associated Banc (NYSE:ASB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. Associated Banc had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 8.15%. As a group, research analysts expect that Associated Banc will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on ASB shares. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Associated Banc from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Associated Banc from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays boosted their price target on Associated Banc from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Associated Banc from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Associated Banc in a research report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Associated Banc currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.78.

Insider Transactions at Associated Banc

In other news, EVP David L. Stein sold 29,536 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.43, for a total value of $810,172.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 81,021 shares in the company, valued at $2,222,406.03. This represents a 26.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John A. Utz sold 19,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.19, for a total value of $460,674.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 100,204 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,423,934.76. The trade was a 15.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.45% of the company’s stock.

Associated Banc Company Profile

Associated Banc-Corp, a bank holding company, provides various banking and nonbanking products to individuals and businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. The company offers lending solutions, including commercial loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction loans, letters of credit, leasing, asset based lending and equipment finance, loan syndications products, residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, personal and installment loans, auto finance and business loans, and business lines of credit.