BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) Announces $0.29 Quarterly Dividend

BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 26th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.29 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%.

BankUnited has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years. BankUnited has a dividend payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BankUnited to earn $3.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.7%.

BankUnited Price Performance

Shares of BKU stock traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $38.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 275,393 shares, compared to its average volume of 800,308. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. BankUnited has a fifty-two week low of $24.34 and a fifty-two week high of $44.45. The company has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.90 and a beta of 1.36. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.01.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $515.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.65 million. BankUnited had a net margin of 9.06% and a return on equity of 8.09%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that BankUnited will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BankUnited news, COO Thomas M. Cornish sold 10,778 shares of BankUnited stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.11, for a total transaction of $421,527.58. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,911,000. The trade was a 9.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jay D. Richards sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total transaction of $102,950.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,428,410.66. This trade represents a 6.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKU has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on BankUnited from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of BankUnited from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of BankUnited from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $37.00 target price on shares of BankUnited in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Compass Point lifted their price objective on BankUnited from $42.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.36.

BankUnited Company Profile

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.