StockNews.com Lowers Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) to Sell

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

VBTX has been the subject of several other research reports. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Veritex from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James raised shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Stephens boosted their price target on shares of Veritex from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veritex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.40.

Veritex Price Performance

VBTX opened at $27.47 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $25.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. Veritex has a 52 week low of $15.93 and a 52 week high of $28.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 15.97 and a beta of 1.37.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.04. Veritex had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The firm had revenue of $113.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.22 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Veritex will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.51%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veritex

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VBTX. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Veritex by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 547,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,734,000 after buying an additional 50,406 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,772,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $87,777,000 after purchasing an additional 52,933 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veritex by 11.7% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 316,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,476,000 after purchasing an additional 33,166 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Veritex by 38.7% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 53,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,093,000 after purchasing an additional 14,884 shares during the period. Finally, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 1st quarter valued at about $332,000. 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.