ABC Arbitrage SA Invests $5.85 Million in Stellarone Corp $STEL

ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in shares of Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 159,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,851,000. Stellarone makes up approximately 0.8% of ABC Arbitrage SA’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Stellarone by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio boosted its position in Stellarone by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 22,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $827,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in Stellarone by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 203,687 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,302,000 after acquiring an additional 847 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Stellarone by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 24,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $768,000 after acquiring an additional 980 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Stellarone by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 11,686 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Stock Performance

Shares of STEL opened at $39.32 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.08 and a 200-day moving average of $36.64. Stellarone Corp has a one year low of $27.88 and a one year high of $40.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS 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%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Stellarone Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Stellarone’s payout ratio is currently 29.27%.

Stellarone Profile

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.