Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI) Raises Dividend to $0.31 Per Share

Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the bank on Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a 3.3% increase from Financial Institutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Financial Institutions has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years. Financial Institutions has a dividend payout ratio of 32.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Financial Institutions to earn $3.76 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 33.0%.

Financial Institutions Trading Down 0.3 %

FISI opened at $25.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $400.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.84 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $27.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.55. Financial Institutions has a 12 month low of $16.29 and a 12 month high of $29.79.

Financial Institutions (NASDAQ:FISI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.20). Financial Institutions had a positive return on equity of 11.12% and a negative net margin of 6.69%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Financial Institutions will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert N. Latella acquired 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.00 per share, for a total transaction of $100,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $400,000. This represents a 33.33 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on FISI. StockNews.com raised Financial Institutions from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Financial Institutions from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of Financial Institutions in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Financial Institutions in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $33.00 price target for the company.

Financial Institutions Company Profile

Financial Institutions, Inc operates as a holding company for the Five Star Bank, a chartered bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals, municipalities, and businesses in New York. The company provides checking and savings account programs, including money market accounts, certificates of deposit, sweep investments, and individual retirement and other qualified plan accounts, as well as NOW accounts.