First Financial Bankshares annual meeting

First Financial Bankshares stockholders learned Tuesday that their quarterly dividend will rise by a penny to 19 cents per share and the bank holding company continues to look for additional acquisitions.

Several hundred people met at the Abilene Convention Center for the company's annual meeting.

Scott Dueser, chairman, president and CEO, announced the 5.6-percent dividend increase.

During a discussion of 2016 and the outlook for 2017, Dueser said, "We are so ready to make another acquisition. It's been a year and a half since our last one."

Bank officials are speaking to "a number of banks" about purchases, he said. "We hope we can have an acquisition this year."

Dueser explained how banks in various areas of the state would be advantageous to First Financial:

• The Interstate 35 corridor would lead into the company's bank in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs (and one location in Fort Worth).
• Banks in East Texas would help to the locations in the Conroe Region, including Huntsville.
• The Hill Country and West Texas are also obviously desirable.

"I am always being asked, 'Would you go out of state (for an acquisition)?'" he said. "Yes, if it was the right place."

Dueser explained that there are or have been discussions with banks in Oklahoma and New Mexico.

At the meeting, the company also honored the late Abilene philanthropist Julia "Judy" Jones Matthews with its Walter Johnson Award for making great contributions to the community. This is only the sixth time in a dozen years that the honor has been bestowed and is the first time it has gone to a person who was not an employee of the bank.

Stockholders also re-elected 11 members of the board of directors