Yahoo Finance WAFD Rewards Stockholders With Buyback Plan for 10M Shares
WaFd, Inc. WAFD has announced a new share repurchase program. Under the plan, the board of directors has authorized an additional buyback of 10 million shares. This brings the total authorization available to 11.8 million shares as of Mar 31, 2024.
Earlier, in 2019, WAFD had announced an additional share buyback of 10 million.
In the last three fiscal years, the company repurchased 12.7 million shares at a weighted average price of $31.32. This represented 17% of the shares outstanding on Oct 1, 2020.
Concurrently, WaFd announced a regular quarterly cash dividend of 26 cents per share. The dividend will be paid out on Jun 7 to shareholders of record as of May 24. Considering the last day’s closing price of $28.73, the company’s dividend yield currently stands at 3.62%. This is impressive compared with the industry’s 2.96%.
WAFD has been increasing its dividend on a regular basis, with the latest one announced this February. Over the past five years, the company has raised its dividend six times, with annualized dividend growth of 4.7%. At present, its payout ratio is 33% of earnings.
Additionally, in February, WaFd acquired Luther Burbank Corporation (LBC) and forayed into the lucrative California market. The acquisition of LBC will be almost 8% accretive to its earnings in fiscal 2025 and result in some cost savings too.
The company has a decent balance sheet. As of Mar 31, 2024, WaFd had total borrowings of $5.3 billion, and cash and cash equivalents were $1.51 billion. Given the earnings strength and solid balance sheet position, its capital distributions are likely to be sustainable going forward.
Over the past six months, shares of WAFD have rallied 5.2% compared with the industry’s rise of 12.2%.
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Currently, WaFd carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Other Banks Rewarding Shareholders
UBS Group AG UBS announced a new share repurchase program. Under the plan, starting from Apr 3, the company is authorized to buy back up to $2 billion worth of common stock. The program will expire on Apr 2, 2026.
This year, UBS is expected to buy back up to $1 billion worth of shares under the new plan. This will start following the completion of the merger between UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG, which is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2024.
TrustCo Bank Corp NY TRST announced a stock buyback plan. The company’s board of directors approved a program under which TRST may repurchase up to 0.2 million shares or 1% of its outstanding current stock.
The company’s last buyback plan expired on Mar 17, 2024. On Mar 17, 2023, TRST’s board of directors approved a share repurchase program of up to 0.2 million shares.
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