Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on ISTR. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Investar in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Zacks Research cut Investar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.50.

Investar Trading Down 0.8%

ISTR opened at $27.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $383.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.90. Investar has a fifty-two week low of $22.95 and a fifty-two week high of $31.77.

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. Investar had a return on equity of 12.62% and a net margin of 18.81%. The firm had revenue of $36.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.45 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Investar will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Investar Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. Investar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.25%.

Institutional Trading of Investar

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its holdings in shares of Investar by 63.8% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 1,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Investar in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Investar by 9.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 64,701 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,764,000 after acquiring an additional 5,746 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Investar during the second quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, AXQ Capital LP bought a new stake in Investar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $212,000. 50.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Investar Company Profile

Investar Holding Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Through its principal subsidiary, Investar Bank, the company provides community banking services to individuals, businesses and institutions.

Investar Bank offers a range of deposit products, including checking, savings and money market accounts, certificates of deposit and commercial deposit services. Its lending activities include commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate financing, residential mortgage loans, construction and development lending, and consumer loans.

The bank also provides treasury management, online and mobile banking, cash management and other financial services.