Sierra Bancorp Announces Dividend of $0.25 (NASDAQ:BSRR)

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) declared a dividend on Monday, January 27th,investing.com reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

Sierra Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 3.0% annually over the last three years. Sierra Bancorp has a payout ratio of 34.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Sierra Bancorp to earn $2.81 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 35.6%.

Sierra Bancorp Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BSRR opened at $29.75 on Monday. Sierra Bancorp has a 1 year low of $17.69 and a 1 year high of $35.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $428.10 million, a P/E ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 0.92.

Insider Transactions at Sierra Bancorp

In related news, Director James C. Holly sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $9,081,462.60. This trade represents a 1.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Albert L. Berra sold 2,540 shares of Sierra Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.24, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,056 shares of company stock worth $244,741 over the last three months. 11.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BSRR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Sierra Bancorp from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Sierra Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday.

Sierra Bancorp Company Profile

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.