Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Hovde Group

Hovde Group upgraded shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $31.50 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veritex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veritex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.50.

Veritex Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $26.81 on Thursday. Veritex has a fifty-two week low of $18.08 and a fifty-two week high of $31.62. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.75 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.02). Veritex had a return on equity of 7.63% and a net margin of 13.44%. Equities research analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Veritex’s payout ratio is 41.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veritex news, Director John Sughrue sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.25, for a total value of $508,805.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 62,643 shares in the company, valued at $1,894,950.75. This represents a 21.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Veritex by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,067,000 after acquiring an additional 9,611 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Veritex by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Veritex by 67.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 807,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,248,000 after purchasing an additional 325,569 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 732,865 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,289,000 after buying an additional 12,286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 13.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 680,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,918,000 after buying an additional 78,082 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Veritex

Veritex Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company accepts deposit products include demand, savings, money market, and time accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate and general commercial, mortgage warehouse loans, residential real estate, construction and land, farmland, paycheck protection program, 1-4 family residential, agricultural, multi-family residential, and consumer loans, as well as purchased receivables financing.