Shares of FS Bancorp, Inc. FSBW have rallied 1.9% since it announced an additional share repurchase authorization. The company’s board of directors has authorized the buyback of up to an additional $10 million worth of shares.
FS Bancorp already has a share buyback program in place, which was announced in April this year. Under this plan, the company was authorized to repurchase up to $15 million worth of shares. The company now has almost $0.9 million authorization remaining under this plan.
Apart from share repurchase authorizations, FS Bancorp has been rewarding shareholders by paying quarterly cash dividend. Since 2014, the company has been increasing its quarterly dividend on a regular basis. The last hike of 3.7% was announced this July. Considering the last day’s closing price of $34.17, FS Bancorp’s dividend yield currently stands at 1.64%.
FS Bancorp’s financials are supported by a strong balance sheet. As of Jun 30, 2021, the company had total debt worth $91.9 million, and total cash and cash equivalents balance was $86.6 million. Its times interest earned of 20.8 and total debt/total capital of 27.5% at the end of second-quarter 2021 improved sequentially.
Given the earnings strength and decent liquidity position, FS Bancorp will likely be able to sustain the current level of capital deployment plan. However, low interest rates and weak loan demand are likely to keep hurting its financials in the near term.
Shares of FS Bancorp have rallied 67.9% over the past 12 months, underperforming the industry’s growth of 81%.
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Currently, FS Bancorp carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Similar Moves by Other Banks
Over the past months, several banks have announced new share-repurchase programs. Some of these are Civista Bancshares, Inc. CIVB, First Financial Northwest, Inc. FFNW and WesBanco, Inc. WSBC.
Civista Bancshares’ board of directors authorized the buyback of up to an aggregate $13.5 million of its outstanding shares. The plan will expire on Aug 10, 2022. First Financial Northwest announced a new share-repurchase program, under which it will buy back about 5% of the outstanding common stock or 476,000 shares.
WesBanco’s board of directors authorized additional share buyback of up to 3.2 million shares. The program has no expiration date.
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