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First Business (FBIZ) Rewards Investors With New Buyback Plan

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First Business Financial Services, Inc. (FBIZ - Free Report) has announced a share repurchase plan. The board of directors has approved the repurchase of FBIZ’s outstanding stock with a maximum aggregate purchase price of $5 million. The program will expire on Mar 4, 2023.

Prior to this, on Jan 28, 2021, the board of directors approved a similar $5-million share repurchase program through Jan 31, 2022. The buyback authorization was fully utilized by October 2021, with the company repurchasing 182,151 shares at a weighted average price of$27.40 per share.

Share buybacks aside, the company has been regularly paying dividends and enhancing shareholder value. This January, FBIZ sequentially hiked its quarterly dividend by 10% to 19.75 cents per share.

This is equivalent to a dividend yield of 2.5% based on last day’s market close price of $31.51. The yield is impressive compared with the industry average of 2.3%. This yield represents a steady income stream and, hence, is attractive for income investors. The cash dividend was paid out on Feb 17, 2022, to shareholders of record as of Feb 7, 2022.

The company’s return on equity of 16% compared with the industry average of 11.70% indicates its superiority in utilizing shareholders’ funds.

Its past performance depicts a robust earnings picture. FBIZ recorded an earnings growth rate of 22.2% over the last three to five years compared with 12.5% growth witnessed by the industry it belongs to. If this momentum continues in the upcoming period, such capital deployments are here to stay.

Supported by its earnings strength, FBIZ is expected to continue efficient capital deployment activities. Through this, it will keep enhancing shareholder value.

Over the past three months, shares of FBIZ have rallied 10.8% against the 3.3% decline of the industry it belongs to.

 

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

Other Finance Stocks That Took Similar Action

Southside Bancshares, Inc. (SBSI - Free Report) recently announced a share repurchase plan. The board of directors approved the repurchase of up to 1 million of SBSI’s outstanding shares. The new share buyback authorization comes with no expiration date.

The new repurchase plan replaces the previous one. On Mar 12, 2020, Southside Bancshares’ board of directors increased the authorization under the previous stock repurchase plan of September 2019 by an additional 1 million shares to buy back up to 2 million shares. In 2021, all remaining authorized shares under the plan were repurchased at an average cost of $36.39 per share.

Popular, Inc. (BPOP - Free Report) entered an accelerated share repurchase agreement or ASR on Feb 28, 2022, to repurchase an aggregate of $400 million of the company’s common stock. This is part of the company’s plans to repurchase up to $500 million of its common stock as part of its planned capital actions for the ongoing year, as underlined in January.

Per the ASR Agreement, on Mar 2, 2022, Popular is expected to have made an initial payment of $400 million to receive an initial delivery of 3,483,942 shares of its common stock. This will be accounted as a treasury stock transaction.


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