Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Earns Buy Rating from DA Davidson

DA Davidson reissued their buy rating on shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) in a report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $34.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on VBTX. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Stephens cut their price objective on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.50.

Veritex Stock Performance

VBTX stock opened at $24.69 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.66 and a beta of 1.36. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.88. Veritex has a one year low of $18.65 and a one year high of $31.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.02). Veritex had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Veritex will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.03%.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Veritex by 63.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,095,000 after purchasing an additional 45,787 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Veritex by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Veritex by 24.1% during the third 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 during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Veritex by 4.6% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 48,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,115 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.