First Guaranty in La. slashes quarterly dividend to a penny

First Guaranty Bancshares in Hammond, La., slashed its quarterly cash dividend to a penny.

The $3.9 billion-asset company’s previous dividend was 8 cents.

First Guaranty began cutting its dividend in July, around the same time that it announced plans to lay off about 15% of its employees to shore up capital. Those decisions came just months after the company hired Michael Mineer as its next president and CEO.