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City Holding (CHCO) Rewards Investors With New Buyback Plan

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City Holding Company (CHCO - Free Report) has announced a new share-repurchase plan. Under the program, the board of directors of this Charleston, WV-based bank authorized the buyback of up to 1 million shares or 6% of its outstanding shares, with no expiration date.

The timing and amount of common stock, which are being repurchased under this program, will be gauged by management, based on its appraisal of market factors and other conditions. Such repurchases will likely be carried out via open market operations.

This new repurchase plan replaces the previous authorization to buy back up to 1 million shares. As of Mar 31, 2021, City Holding repurchased 908,701 sharesunder the share buyback program.

In addition to the share repurchases, the company pays regular quarterly dividends. Notably, on Dec 16, 2020, it announced a quarterly dividend of 58 cents per share, marking a 1.75% hike from the previous payout. The dividend is payable Jan 29, 2021, to shareholders of record as of Jan 15, 2021.

Considering the last day’s closing price of $83.85 per share, the dividend yield currently stands at 2.8%. This looks impressive compared with the industry average of 2.03%.

City Holding had a solid balance sheet and liquidity position. The company’s no debt ratio compares favorably with the debt/equity ratio for the industry of 0.19. This reflects that it has a lesser debt burden compared with the peers and it will be financially stable even in adverse economic conditions.

Apart from these, its earning strength indicates that City Holding’s capital deployments seem sustainable and will continue to enhance shareholder value. However, low interest rates and a tough operating backdrop are likely to keep hurting its financials in the near term.

Shares of City Holding have rallied 40.5% over the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 72.9%.

 

 

Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other Banks That Took Similar Action

Over the past month, several banks have announced new share-repurchase programs. Some of these are FB Financial Corporation (FBK - Free Report) , Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY - Free Report) and Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (PB - Free Report) .

FB Financial’s board of directors authorized the repurchase of shares worth up to $100 million. Ally Financial announced a new share-repurchase plan, under which it is authorized to repurchase up to 1.6 billion shares. Further, Prosperity Bancshares’ board of directors has approved the buyback of up to 4.65 million shares.

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