Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $29.40.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VBTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veritex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veritex

In other Veritex news, Director John Sughrue sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.25, for a total value of $508,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 62,643 shares in the company, valued at $1,894,950.75. This trade represents a 21.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 12,777 shares of Veritex stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.69, for a total transaction of $353,795.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 224,132 shares in the company, valued at $6,206,215.08. This represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Veritex by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,618,000 after purchasing an additional 122,809 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 73,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,920,000 after buying an additional 701 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,064,000 after buying an additional 18,185 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Veritex by 63.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,095,000 after acquiring an additional 45,787 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in Veritex in the 3rd quarter worth $404,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VBTX opened at $27.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Veritex has a 12 month low of $18.08 and a 12 month high of $31.62. The company has a market capitalization of $1.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.34 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $28.91 and its 200 day moving average is $25.49.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.04. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.79% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $113.17 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.17 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.28%.

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.