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

Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th.

Provident Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. Provident Financial Services has a payout ratio of 43.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Provident Financial Services to earn $2.19 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 43.8%.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

PFS stock opened at $19.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Provident Financial Services has a one year low of $13.07 and a one year high of $19.62. The stock has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a PE ratio of 11.89 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.28.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Provident Financial Services from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. DA Davidson raised shares of Provident Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $15.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Provident Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.75.

About Provident Financial Services

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.