Bank of New York Mellon Corp Reduces Stock Holdings in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp reduced its stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Free Report) by 4.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 489,502 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 21,150 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.90% of Veritex worth $12,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VBTX. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Veritex during the fourth quarter worth about $6,974,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in Veritex by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 28,800 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $782,000 after buying an additional 2,437 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in Veritex by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 17,020 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $462,000 after buying an additional 1,050 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Veritex during the fourth quarter worth about $599,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Veritex by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 789,909 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $21,454,000 after buying an additional 14,924 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on VBTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Veritex from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. William Blair upgraded Veritex to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Veritex from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and set a $34.00 price target (up from $30.00) on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on Veritex from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.25.

Veritex Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ:VBTX traded down $0.39 on Thursday, hitting $32.10. 1,045,555 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,416,271. The stock has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a PE ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $26.58 and a 200-day moving average of $25.35. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.10 and a fifty-two week high of $33.69.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $109.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.91 million. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 14.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 7th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Veritex's payout ratio is currently 41.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Lavonda Renfro sold 53,411 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.38, for a total transaction of $1,729,448.18. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 60,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,949,567.42. This trade represents a 47.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cara Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.53, for a total value of $325,300.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 17,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $565,111.16. The trade was a 36.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 300,531 shares of company stock valued at $9,724,762. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company's stock.

Veritex Profile

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.