Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) Increases Dividend to $0.11 Per Share

Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.105 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from Investar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10.

Investar has raised its dividend payment by an average of 16.5% per year over the last three years. Investar has a payout ratio of 20.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Investar to earn $1.94 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 20.6%.

Investar Trading Up 2.1 %

Investar stock opened at $19.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Investar has a one year low of $9.07 and a one year high of $19.15. The stock has a market cap of $187.73 million, a PE ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $17.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.48.

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.06. Investar had a return on equity of 6.69% and a net margin of 10.04%. The business had revenue of $38.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Investar will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Investar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Investar Company Profile

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.