Investar Holding Co. (ISTR) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 28th

Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 20th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.10 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 28th.

Investar has raised its dividend by an average of 16.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 9 consecutive years. Investar has a dividend payout ratio of 20.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Investar to earn $1.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.7%.

Investar Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ ISTR opened at $16.25 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. Investar has a 52-week low of $9.07 and a 52-week high of $17.99. The stock has a market cap of $158.93 million, a PE ratio of 9.62 and a beta of 0.77.

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $20.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.84 million. Investar had a return on equity of 8.64% and a net margin of 11.94%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Investar will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Investar

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Investar by 23.3% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 13,870 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 2,618 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Investar by 49.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 27,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $583,000 after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Investar by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 255,246 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,529 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Investar during the fourth quarter worth approximately $118,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in Investar by 44.2% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 40,424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $804,000 after acquiring an additional 12,383 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.17% of the company’s stock.

About Investar

Investar Holding Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Investar Bank that provides a range of commercial banking products to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in south Louisiana, southeast Texas, and Alabama in the United States. The company offers various deposit products and services, such as savings, checking, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as various certificates of deposit; debit and credit cards; internet, mobile, and video banking services; and reciprocal deposit products.