Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $34.43 and traded as high as $36.82. Stellarone shares last traded at $36.3150, with a volume of 231,768 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on STEL shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Stellarone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings raised Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded Stellarone from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Stock Down 0.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.49. The company has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a PE ratio of 17.74 and a beta of 0.72.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.41 million. Stellarone had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 17.56%.Stellarone’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Stellarone Corp will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stellarone Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Stellarone

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in Stellarone by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $283,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio boosted its holdings in Stellarone by 1.3% in the first quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 22,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $827,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in Stellarone by 3.4% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 13,587 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS boosted its holdings in Stellarone by 5.4% in the third quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 9,787 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EJF Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Stellarone by 3.5% in the third quarter. EJF Capital LLC now owns 17,564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $533,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.15% of the company’s stock.

About Stellarone

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers.