Independent Bank Corp. (INDB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.57 on January 6th

Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.57 per share by the bank on Monday, January 6th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 30th.

Independent Bank has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Independent Bank has a dividend payout ratio of 45.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Independent Bank to earn $5.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.3%.

Independent Bank Stock Down 1.4 %

INDB opened at $65.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of 14.13 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50-day moving average of $68.85 and a 200-day moving average of $61.22. Independent Bank has a fifty-two week low of $45.11 and a fifty-two week high of $77.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $250.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.24 million. Independent Bank had a net margin of 20.26% and a return on equity of 6.74%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Independent Bank will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on INDB shares. Raymond James upgraded shares of Independent Bank from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $74.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Independent Bank from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Independent Bank from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.00.

About Independent Bank

Independent Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Rockland Trust Company that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in the United States. The company provides interest checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as demand deposits and time certificates of deposit.