Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.15 Per Share

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 12th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the bank on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12.

Equity Bancshares has a dividend payout ratio of 14.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Equity Bancshares to earn $4.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.6%.

Equity Bancshares Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of EQBK stock opened at $40.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $618.97 million, a P/E ratio of 67.63 and a beta of 0.90. Equity Bancshares has a 12-month low of $22.78 and a 12-month high of $42.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $39.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.84.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.56 million. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.43%. Research analysts forecast that Equity Bancshares will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Equity Bancshares

In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total transaction of $98,072.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,480,384.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total value of $98,072.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,480,384.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,161,674.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,101 shares of company stock worth $1,351,925 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQBK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.