Short Interest in Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE:NIC) Decreases By 22.6%

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE:NIC) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 140,900 shares, a decline of 22.6% from the October 15th total of 182,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 46,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Nicolet Bankshares Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:NIC traded up $0.05 on Friday, reaching $111.84. The company had a trading volume of 33,068 shares, compared to its average volume of 70,300. Nicolet Bankshares has a twelve month low of $72.70 and a twelve month high of $116.17. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $99.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.13. Nicolet Bankshares had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 23.35%. The company had revenue of $91.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.50 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Nicolet Bankshares will post 7.74 EPS for the current year.

Nicolet Bankshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Nicolet Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is 14.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Maxim Group boosted their target price on Nicolet Bankshares from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nicolet Bankshares

In other news, Director Robert Bruce Atwell sold 2,500 shares of Nicolet Bankshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.01, for a total transaction of $252,525.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 33,315 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,365,148.15. The trade was a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael E. Daniels sold 8,003 shares of Nicolet Bankshares stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.98, for a total value of $792,136.94. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 72,402 shares in the company, valued at $7,166,349.96. This represents a 9.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 69,156 shares of company stock valued at $7,324,308 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 16.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NIC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nicolet Bankshares by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,938 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,704,000 after acquiring an additional 8,213 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Nicolet Bankshares by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 589,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,399,000 after purchasing an additional 2,654 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Nicolet Bankshares by 3.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 587,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,783,000 after acquiring an additional 16,952 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Nicolet Bankshares by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 381,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,507,000 after acquiring an additional 13,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Nicolet Bankshares by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 303,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,019,000 after acquiring an additional 4,911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 43.06% of the company’s stock.

Nicolet Bankshares Company Profile

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Nicolet National Bank that provides banking products and services for businesses and individuals in Wisconsin and Michigan. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market accounts; various certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts.