Yahoo Finance Southside Bancshares (SBSI) Up 5.3% on New Buyback Plan
Southside Bancshares, Inc. SBSI recently announced a new share repurchase plan. The board of directors has approved the repurchase of up to 1 million of SBSI’s outstanding shares. This new share buyback authorization comes with no expiration date. Shares of SBSI were up 5.3% following this announcement.
The new repurchase plan replaces the previous one. On Mar 12, 2020, the board of directors had increased the authorization under the previous stock repurchase plan of September 2019 by an additional 1 million shares for a total authorization to buy back up to 2 million shares. During 2021, all remaining authorized shares under the plan were repurchased for a total of 938,484 shares at an average cost of $36.39 per share.
Per the new authorization, Southside Bancshares is permitted to buy back shares from time to time through a combination of open-market repurchases, privately negotiated transactions or pursuant to any trading plan.
Lee R. Gibson, CEO of Southside Bancshares, remarked, “We are pleased to announce the authorization of the Stock Repurchase Plan, which reflects our confidence in Southside and our commitment to enhance shareholder value.”
Share buybacks aside, Southside Bancshares is regularly paying dividends and enhancing its shareholder value. On Feb 3, 2022, SBSI announced a quarterly dividend of 34 cents per share, marking a 3% hike. A special cash dividend of 6 cents per share was paid in December 2021.
Considering the last day’s closing price of $41.97 per share, the dividend yield currently stands at 3.2%. This looks impressive compared with the industry average of 0.74%.
SBSI’s return on equity of 12.87% compared with the industry average of 11.56% indicates Southside Bancshares’ commendable position over its peers.
Southside Bancshares’ ability to sustain the capital deployments also depends on its earnings growth. Its past performance depicts a robust earnings picture. SBSI recorded an earnings growth rate of 13.45% over the last three to five years compared with 11.61% growth witnessed by the industry it belongs to. If this momentum continues in the upcoming period, such capital deployments are here to stay.
Southside Bancshares’ cash and due from banks of $91.1 million on Dec 31, 2021, saw a 9.3% sequential and 4.3% year-over-year improvement. Given its improving liquidity and earnings strength, its capital deployments seem sustainable to enhance its shareholder value. However, low interest rates are likely to affect its financials in the near term.
Over the past three months, shares of SBSI have rallied 19.5%, outperforming 12.5% growth of the industry it belongs to.
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Currently, SBSI carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Other Finance Stocks That Took Similar Actions
HomeStreet, Inc. HMST announced additional share repurchase authorization worth $75 million. HMST plans to fund this with the proceeds from its $100-million subordinated note offering completed on Jan 19.
In October 2021, HomeStreet had announced $20-million worth extension of its share buyback plan.
CVB Financial Corp. CVBF announced a new share repurchase plan. The board of directors approved the repurchase of up to 10 million shares of CVBF’s outstanding stock. There is no expiration date for this program.
The new repurchase plan replaces the previous one, which had authorized CVB Financial to buy back up to 10 million shares. This plan was announced in August 2016. As of Dec 31, 2021, authorization to repurchase 4.1 million shares remained.
KKR & Co. Inc. KKR increased share repurchase amount to $500 million, per an 8K filing. KKR expects the program to remain effective until the maximum approved amount is spent. The buyback program has no expiration date.
Other than repurchases of common stock, the buyback program will be utilized to retire equity awards granted per KKR’s equity incentive plans representing the right to receive common stock.
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