Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.40.

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

Veritex Stock Performance

NASDAQ VBTX opened at $30.41 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.22. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.49 and a beta of 1.36. Veritex has a 1-year low of $18.08 and a 1-year high of $31.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

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

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John Sughrue sold 16,820 shares of the company’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 transaction of $508,805.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 62,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,894,950.75. This represents a 21.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 12,777 shares of Veritex stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were 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 owns 224,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,206,215.08. This trade represents a 5.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 4.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Veritex by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,795,336 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,766,000 after buying an additional 23,222 shares in the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Veritex during the 2nd quarter valued at $566,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Veritex during the 2nd quarter worth $730,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Veritex by 66.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 424,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,944,000 after purchasing an additional 169,448 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates purchased a new position in Veritex in the third quarter valued at about $3,971,000. 88.31% of the stock is 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.