BancorpSouth Unveils Share Buyback Plan To Cheer Stockholders

BancorpSouth Bank’s (NYSE:BXS) board of directors has authorized a new share repurchase program of up to 8 million shares. The plan will be commencing on Jan 2, 2020 and expire on Dec 31, 2020.

In December 2018, BancorpSouth had announced a share repurchase program of nearly 3 million shares expiring on Dec 31, 2019. Prior to this, the bank had completed its share buyback of 6 million on Oct 31, 2018.

The increase in current buyback authorization was possible as the company generated enough capital by issuing 4.125% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Subordinated Notes worth $300 million and 5.5% Series A Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock worth $172.5 million in November.

Alongside share repurchases, the company pays dividends regularly. BancorpSouth has been raising its quarterly dividend on an annual basis since 2013. The latest hike of 8.8% was announced in July 2019. Prior to this, it had raised dividend by 21.4% in July 2018.

BancorpSouth’s ability to generate positive cash flows and its consistently improving earnings performance over the last few quarters seem encouraging. Thus, driven by a healthy liquidity position, the company remains well poised to increase shareholders’ wealth.

Shares of the company have rallied 23.8% so far this year, outperforming the industry’s growth of 21.7%.

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

In the past three months, other banks like Fulton Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FULT) and Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) have announced share buyback program. While Fulton Financial authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million worth of shares, Hancock Whitney has entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) ) to buy back shares worth $185 million.

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