ING Groep (NYSE:ING) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.65 Per Share

ING Groep (NYSE:ING) announced a semi-annual dividend on Wednesday, March 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 25th will be given a dividend of 0.6526 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 9th. This represents a dividend yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 25th. This is a 291.5% increase from ING Groep’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17.

ING Groep has raised its dividend payment by an average of 19.7% per year over the last three years. ING Groep has a payout ratio of 13.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ING Groep to earn $2.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.33 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.9%.

ING Groep Stock Performance

NYSE ING traded down $0.23 on Wednesday, hitting $20.06. 2,618,031 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,268,650. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $17.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.00. The firm has a market cap of $70.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.37, a P/E/G ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 1.44. ING Groep has a fifty-two week low of $15.09 and a fifty-two week high of $20.79.

ING Groep (NYSE:ING) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.02). ING Groep had a return on equity of 11.81% and a net margin of 28.30%. On average, research analysts expect that ING Groep will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of ING Groep from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th.

About ING Groep

ING Groep N.V. provides various banking products and services in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail Netherlands, Retail Belgium, Retail Germany, Retail Other, and Wholesale Banking. The company accepts current and savings accounts.