Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.17 EPS

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.17), Zacks reports. Peoples Financial Services had a return on equity of 7.73% and a net margin of 3.00%.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Up 1.6 %

PFIS opened at $53.70 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $536.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.14 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $51.96 and its 200 day moving average is $49.17. Peoples Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $59.70.

Peoples Financial Services Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.6175 per share. This represents a $2.47 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Peoples Financial Services’s payout ratio is 239.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PFIS has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Hovde Group increased their target price on Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Peoples Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Peoples Financial Services Company Profile

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts.