Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 (NASDAQ:SASR)

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 14th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the bank on Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 14th.

Sandy Spring Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 53.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Sandy Spring Bancorp to earn $2.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.9%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:SASR traded up $0.08 on Tuesday, hitting $27.95. The stock had a trading volume of 18,143 shares, compared to its average volume of 299,175. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 1 year low of $19.27 and a 1 year high of $31.83. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.66 and a beta of 0.96.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.44% and a net margin of 12.31%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SASR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.00.

About Sandy Spring Bancorp

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Sandy Spring Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, mortgage, private banking, and trust services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers financial products and services, including various loan and deposit products.