Analysts Set United Community Banks, Inc. (NYSE:UCB) PT at $38.40

United Community Banks, Inc. (NYSE:UCB) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eight brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.40.

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Hovde Group lowered their target price on United Community Banks from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Zacks Research lowered United Community Banks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised United Community Banks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on United Community Banks from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Stephens raised their target price on United Community Banks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Richard Bradshaw sold 1,510 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.09, for a total transaction of $49,965.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 84,497 shares in the company, valued at $2,796,005.73. This represents a 1.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On United Community Banks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of United Community Banks by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,514,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,150,000 after purchasing an additional 120,156 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of United Community Banks by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,520,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,315,000 after purchasing an additional 182,397 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of United Community Banks by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,805,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,362,000 after purchasing an additional 124,347 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of United Community Banks during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,450,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of United Community Banks by 70.6% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,380,627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,103,000 after purchasing an additional 571,296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.29% of the company’s stock.

United Community Banks Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:UCB opened at $33.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.27 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. United Community Banks has a 12-month low of $27.23 and a 12-month high of $36.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.22.

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.70. The business had revenue of $276.51 million during the quarter. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 22.05%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.58 earnings per share. Analysts predict that United Community Banks will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

United Community Banks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. United Community Banks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.76%.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc (NYSE: UCB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia. It operates primarily through its subsidiary, United Community Bank, providing a broad range of banking and financial services to individual, business and governmental customers. The company’s core offerings include deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, mortgage origination, treasury and cash management services, and wealth management.

In addition to traditional banking products such as checking, savings and money market accounts, United Community Bank specializes in commercial real estate financing, small business administration (SBA) loans, equipment financing and agricultural lending.