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Deutsche Bank (DB) Initiates Share Buyback, Proposes Dividend

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Deutsche Bank AG’s (DB - Free Report) management board recently proposed a dividend of €0.20 per share for the fiscal year 2021, in line with its announcement made in January 2022. This will be the company's first dividend disbursement since 2018.

DB shareholders had received a dividend of €0.11 per share in May 2019 for the financial year 2018. Hence, the recently proposed dividend represents an 81.8% hike from the prior payout. Based on the last day’s closing price of $12.97, the company’s dividend yield will be 1.7%. This yield is not only attractive for income investors, but also represents a steady income stream.

Dividend aside, the management board also initiated a share buyback program worth €300 million on Mar 14. The plan is valid up to Apr 27, 2022. Deutsche Bank has repurchased approximately €160.7-million worth of shares from Mar 14 to Apr 1, 2022. Such share repurchases and dividend payments will result in a capital distribution of around €700 million for 2022.

According to the financial targets set for 2025, the bank intends to grow the dividend per share by 50% per year in the next three years. This would result in aggregate dividend payments of €3.3 billion by 2025 with respect to financial years 2021-2024.

The company aims to achieve capital distribution of approximately €8 billion for financial years 2021-2025.

Further, management expects total payout ratio of 50% of net income attributable to shareholders in 2025 and beyond. Supported by its strong balance sheet position and decent debt/equity position, Deutsche Bank is expected to continue with efficient capital deployment activities. Through this, it will keep enhancing shareholder value.

Over the past six months, shares of DB have declined 2.2% on the NYSE against 5.2% gain of the industry.

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Deutsche Bank currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other Banks Taking Similar Steps

Over the past few months, several banks have rewarded their shareholders with dividend hikes. Some of these include BankUnited, Inc. (BKU - Free Report) and Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (GBCI - Free Report) .

BankUnited declared a quarterly cash dividend of 25 cents per share, marking a 9% increase from the prior payout. The dividend will be paid out on Apr 29 to shareholders of record on Apr 14.

Prior to this, BKU had announced a 10% dividend hike in February 2020. This marked the first time that the company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend. Before that, the bank used to pay 21 cents per share as quarterly dividend.

Glacier Bancorp declared a quarterly dividend of 33 cents per share, representing a 3.1% hike from the prior payout. The dividend will be paid out on Apr 21 to its stockholders of record as of Apr 12, 2022.

This marks the company’s 148th consecutive quarterly dividend. GBCI has increased its dividend 49 times.

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