Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Tuesday morning.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on VBTX. Stephens restated an equal weight rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of Veritex in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Veritex from $23.50 to $25.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Veritex from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $24.13.

Veritex Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $20.02 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $19.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.21. The company has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of 10.11 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Veritex has a 12 month low of $14.88 and a 12 month high of $24.46.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $77.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.67 million. Veritex had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 14.51%. The company’s revenue was down 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.40%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Point72 Middle East FZE bought a new position in shares of Veritex during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Veritex by 323.2% during the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Veritex during the first quarter valued at $33,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Veritex during the first quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in shares of Veritex during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. 88.31% of the stock is owned by 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.