Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Short Interest Down 19.3% in January

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, a decline of 19.3% from the January 15th total of 1,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 412,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VBTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens reduced their price target on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.50.

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VBTX traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $26.58. The company had a trading volume of 330,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 444,882. Veritex has a 52 week low of $18.08 and a 52 week high of $31.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a PE ratio of 13.63 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $27.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.54.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. Analysts expect that Veritex will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veritex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VBTX. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Veritex by 163.8% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $232,000 after buying an additional 5,469 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Veritex during the third quarter worth approximately $240,000. Raymond James & Associates bought a new stake in Veritex in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,971,000. 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Sippican Capital Advisors increased its stake in Veritex by 0.4% in the third quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 99,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,612,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Veritex Company Profile

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.