Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 1st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.43 per share on Monday, April 21st. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.93%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. This is a 2.4% increase from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42.

Bank OZK has increased its dividend by an average of 11.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Bank OZK has a dividend payout ratio of 25.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Bank OZK to earn $6.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.9%.

Bank OZK Price Performance

OZK opened at $43.75 on Thursday. Bank OZK has a 1 year low of $37.43 and a 1 year high of $53.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $47.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.16. The firm has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a PE ratio of 7.13 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.12. Bank OZK had a return on equity of 13.90% and a net margin of 25.83%. The company had revenue of $412.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $407.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. Bank OZK’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Bank OZK will post 6.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on OZK. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Bank OZK from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group started coverage on Bank OZK in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Bank OZK from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.38.

About Bank OZK

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits.