ESSA Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESSA) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.15

ESSA Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESSA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 22nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th.

ESSA Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 7.7% per year over the last three years.

ESSA Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of ESSA Bancorp stock opened at $18.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $187.87 million, a PE ratio of 10.63 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. ESSA Bancorp has a 52 week low of $15.82 and a 52 week high of $22.22. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.64.

ESSA Bancorp (NASDAQ:ESSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $16.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.19 million. ESSA Bancorp had a net margin of 14.83% and a return on equity of 7.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen began coverage on shares of ESSA Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock.

Institutional Trading of ESSA Bancorp

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in ESSA Bancorp stock. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in ESSA Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESSA) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,832 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned 0.50% of ESSA Bancorp worth $949,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 54.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ESSA Bancorp Company Profile

ESSA Bancorp, Inc operates as a bank holding company for ESSA Bank & Trust that provides a range of financial services to individuals, families, and businesses in Pennsylvania. The company accepts savings accounts, interest bearing demand accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, club accounts, certificates of deposit and IRAs, and other qualified plan accounts, as well as commercial checking accounts.