Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.40 Per Share

Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the bank on Monday, May 20th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This is a positive change from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

Peoples Bancorp has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 8 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp has a payout ratio of 45.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Peoples Bancorp to earn $3.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 44.1%.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ PEBO traded up $0.21 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,294 shares, compared to its average volume of 123,767. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.48 and a beta of 0.76. Peoples Bancorp has a 12 month low of $23.05 and a 12 month high of $34.85. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $28.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.32.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $112.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $115.00 million. Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 21.52% and a return on equity of 13.47%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on PEBO shares. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $34.00 target price for the company. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 1st. They set a “market perform” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.