Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of Bank OZK in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Bank OZK from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Bank OZK from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley cut Bank OZK from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $56.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Bank OZK in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.88.

Bank OZK Stock Down 0.3%

OZK stock opened at $47.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.79. Bank OZK has a 12 month low of $42.37 and a 12 month high of $53.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.89 and a beta of 0.88.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $430.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $436.42 million. Bank OZK had a net margin of 24.95% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The firm’s revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Bank OZK will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank OZK declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, June 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 13th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 13th. This is a positive change from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is currently 31.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank OZK

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in OZK. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Bank OZK by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,625,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,045,000 after purchasing an additional 38,592 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,036,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $139,327,000 after purchasing an additional 134,490 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,146,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,812,000 after purchasing an additional 29,024 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Bank OZK during the second quarter worth $63,410,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bank OZK during the fourth quarter worth $59,809,000. 86.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Bank OZK

Bank OZK is a regional financial institution headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company provides banking services to individuals, businesses and institutions through a network of banking offices concentrated in the Southeastern United States and select markets, including New York and California.

Its products and services include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, consumer lending, commercial and industrial financing, treasury management and other business banking solutions.