Sierra Bancorp (BSRR) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 3rd

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,investing.com reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Sierra Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Sierra Bancorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.0% per year over the last three years. Sierra Bancorp has a payout ratio of 34.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Sierra Bancorp to earn $3.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.9%.

Sierra Bancorp Stock Down 0.7 %

Sierra Bancorp stock opened at $30.14 on Friday. Sierra Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $17.69 and a fifty-two week high of $35.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $433.71 million, a PE ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s 50-day moving average is $29.94 and its 200-day moving average is $29.37.

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.72. Sierra Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.55% and a net margin of 19.90%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sierra Bancorp will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on BSRR shares. StockNews.com downgraded Sierra Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Sierra Bancorp from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sierra Bancorp news, Director Albert L. Berra sold 2,540 shares of Sierra Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.24, for a total transaction of $81,889.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 150,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,838,031.12. The trade was a 1.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James C. Holly sold 5,000 shares of Sierra Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.98, for a total value of $144,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 313,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,081,462.60. This represents a 1.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,056 shares of company stock worth $244,741 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.86% of the company’s stock.

About Sierra Bancorp

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts.