Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) Declares Stock Buyback Plan

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, January 26th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $2.81 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the savings and loans company to buy up to 0.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Provident Financial Services in a research note on Thursday. DA Davidson downgraded Provident Financial Services from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Provident Financial Services from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.70.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

PFS traded up $0.02 on Monday, hitting $20.61. 642,304 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 740,167. Provident Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $14.34 and a fifty-two week high of $21.71. The stock has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $20.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The savings and loans company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.55. Provident Financial Services had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.62%. The firm had revenue of $221.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $220.90 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Provident Financial Services will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Provident Financial Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. Provident Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is 48.98%.

Insider Activity at Provident Financial Services

In other news, CEO George Lista sold 8,262 shares of Provident Financial Services stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.35, for a total transaction of $151,607.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 108,656 shares in the company, valued at $1,993,837.60. The trade was a 7.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Provident Financial Services Company Profile

Provident Financial Services, Inc is the bank holding company for Provident Bank, a regional commercial bank headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The company operates a network of full-service branches across New Jersey, the New York metropolitan area and eastern Pennsylvania, offering a range of personal and business banking solutions.

Its core products and services include checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential mortgage loans, commercial real estate financing and small-business lending.