Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) Director Tonya Williams Bradford Sells 1,600 Shares

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:LOB) Director Tonya Bradford sold 1,600 shares of Live Oak Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.89, for a total value of $63,824.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $320,835.27. The trade was a 16.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Live Oak Bancshares Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of LOB stock traded down $0.20 on Tuesday, hitting $39.41. The company had a trading volume of 173,331 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,448. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.36 and a twelve month high of $44.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.88 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $41.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.29.

Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.10. Live Oak Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.77% and a net margin of 12.68%.The company had revenue of $156.15 million during the quarter. Equities research analysts expect that Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

Live Oak Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Live Oak Bancshares’s payout ratio is 4.23%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Live Oak Bancshares

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $143,588,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 4,962.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,668,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635,680 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in shares of Live Oak Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $55,546,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Live Oak Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $22,278,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Live Oak Bancshares by 655.6% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 687,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,339,000 after buying an additional 596,841 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Live Oak Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research cut Live Oak Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Live Oak Bancshares from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.40.

About Live Oak Bancshares

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and operates through its subsidiary Live Oak Banking Company. Founded in 2008, the company leverages a branchless, technology-driven platform to deliver specialty lending and deposit products across the United States. Live Oak Bancshares completed its initial public offering in February 2018 and trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol LOB.

The company’s primary focus is on originating and servicing commercial loans for small businesses in select industry verticals.