Fisher Asset Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Fisher Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,743 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,446 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned 0.15% of Peoples Bancorp worth $1,671,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PEBO. FMR LLC grew its position in Peoples Bancorp by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,252 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 223.3% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 3,964 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $119,000 after acquiring an additional 2,738 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $297,000. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $323,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.02, for a total value of $31,020.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,686 shares in the company, valued at $858,819.72. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 3,000 shares of company stock valued at $98,670 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $37.50 price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.90.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of PEBO stock opened at $30.66 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $32.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.75. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.74 and a 1 year high of $37.07.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.22%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.34%.

Peoples Bancorp Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.