Great Lakes Advisors LLC Sells 15,992 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 8.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,992 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Veritex were worth $4,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Veritex in the 3rd quarter valued at $11,139,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Veritex during the fourth quarter worth $6,974,000. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 39.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 561,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,782,000 after buying an additional 157,571 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,618,000 after acquiring an additional 122,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC increased its position in shares of Veritex by 748.1% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 125,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,297,000 after acquiring an additional 110,480 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Veritex from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” 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 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James cut their price target 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. Finally, Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veritex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.50.

Veritex Trading Down 1.6 %

VBTX stock opened at $23.85 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $26.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.88. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $18.08 and a one year high of $31.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.03%.

Veritex 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.