Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

VBTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Veritex from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Veritex from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $24.38.

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $20.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.92 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s fifty day moving average is $20.13 and its 200 day moving average is $20.64. Veritex has a twelve month low of $15.93 and a twelve month high of $24.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.06). Veritex had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 12.47%. The company had revenue of $191.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $109.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Veritex will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. Veritex’s payout ratio is currently 46.51%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Veritex during the first quarter valued at $29,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in Veritex by 1,319.3% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 3,008 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Veritex

Veritex Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company accepts deposit products include demand, savings, money market, and time accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate and general commercial, mortgage warehouse loans, residential real estate, construction and land, farmland, paycheck protection program, 1-4 family residential, agricultural, multi-family residential, and consumer loans, as well as purchased receivables financing.