Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Shares of Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYBT) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Thursday . Approximately 1,174,199 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 585% from the previous session’s volume of 171,394 shares.The stock last traded at $75.40 and had previously closed at $75.20.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Stock Yards Bancorp from $65.50 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens lowered Stock Yards Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $76.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Hovde Group lowered Stock Yards Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $67.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th.

Stock Yards Bancorp Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $73.96 and a 200-day moving average of $66.23.

Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.08. Stock Yards Bancorp had a net margin of 22.54% and a return on equity of 12.71%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.82 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Stock Yards Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Stock Yards Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.88%.

Insider Transactions at Stock Yards Bancorp

In other news, Director David P. Heintzman sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.59, for a total transaction of $223,770.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 30,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,248,888.50. This represents a 9.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Philip Poindexter sold 3,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.55, for a total value of $258,305.45. Following the sale, the president now owns 51,331 shares in the company, valued at $3,878,057.05. This trade represents a 6.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,614 shares of company stock worth $1,687,926 over the last quarter. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SYBT. Principal Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Stock Yards Bancorp by 115.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 485 shares of the bank’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Kentucky Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $45,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp by 126.2% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 846 shares of the bank’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in Stock Yards Bancorp by 151.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 2,271 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $141,000 after buying an additional 1,367 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.46% of the company’s stock.

Stock Yards Bancorp Company Profile

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc operates as a holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company that provides various financial services for individuals, corporations, and others in the United States. It operates in two segments, Commercial Banking, and WM&T. The Commercial Banking segment offers a range of loan and deposit products to individual consumers and businesses in all its markets through retail lending, mortgage banking, deposit services, online banking, mobile banking, private banking, commercial lending, commercial real estate lending, leasing, treasury management services, merchant services, international banking, correspondent banking, and other banking services.