Nuveen Asset Management LLC Sells 50,495 Shares of Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 635,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 50,495 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC owned about 1.84% of Banner worth $42,441,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Banner by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,379,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,111,000 after buying an additional 49,457 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Banner in the 4th quarter worth $274,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Banner by 816.9% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,082 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 964 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Banner by 10,213.3% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 634,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,371,000 after acquiring an additional 628,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Banner by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 134,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,951,000 after acquiring an additional 2,637 shares in the last quarter. 87.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott raised shares of Banner from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $71.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of Banner in a report on Monday, April 21st. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $65.00 target price (down from $77.00) on shares of Banner in a report on Monday, April 21st. StockNews.com lowered Banner from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Banner from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.83.

Banner Stock Down 0.0%

BANR stock opened at $64.76 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.03 and a 200-day moving average of $67.02. The company has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.27 and a beta of 0.90. Banner Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.59 and a fifty-two week high of $78.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Banner (NASDAQ:BANR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $159.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $159.72 million. Banner had a return on equity of 10.03% and a net margin of 20.28%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Banner Co. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Banner Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th were paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 29th. Banner’s payout ratio is currently 37.72%.

Banner Company Profile

Banner Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Banner Bank that engages in the provision of commercial banking and financial products and services to individuals, businesses, and public sector entities in the United States. It accepts various deposit instruments, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, regular savings accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as treasury management services and retirement savings plans.