U.S. Bancorp Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:USB)

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.87%.

U.S. Bancorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. U.S. Bancorp has a payout ratio of 46.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect U.S. Bancorp to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.5%.

U.S. Bancorp Stock Performance

U.S. Bancorp stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.66. The stock had a trading volume of 824,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,200,623. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.59 billion, a PE ratio of 15.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.03. U.S. Bancorp has a 12 month low of $37.81 and a 12 month high of $53.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $49.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.95.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $6.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 12.91%. U.S. Bancorp’s revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that U.S. Bancorp will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

USB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $49.00 to $65.00 in a report on Monday, November 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $51.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, U.S. Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jodi L. Richard sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.03, for a total value of $1,225,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 129,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,363,603.70. This represents a 16.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.23% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

U.S. Bancorp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

U.S. Bancorp Company Profile

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.