Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.29 Per Share

Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.29 per share by the bank on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Enterprise Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

Enterprise Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 12.2% annually over the last three years. Enterprise Financial Services has a payout ratio of 22.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Enterprise Financial Services to earn $4.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.6%.

Enterprise Financial Services Stock Up 4.3 %

Shares of Enterprise Financial Services stock opened at $60.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.96. Enterprise Financial Services has a 52-week low of $37.28 and a 52-week high of $63.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Enterprise Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.14. Enterprise Financial Services had a net margin of 19.73% and a return on equity of 10.81%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Enterprise Financial Services will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EFSC. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Enterprise Financial Services from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Enterprise Financial Services from $59.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Richard Sanborn sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.56, for a total value of $5,956,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 40,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,438,982. This trade represents a 70.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

About Enterprise Financial Services

Enterprise Financial Services Corp operates as the holding company for Enterprise Bank & Trust that offers banking and wealth management services to individuals and corporate customers primarily in Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico. It provides checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit.