Impax Asset Management Group plc Buys 403,387 Shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR)

Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR - Free Report) by 350.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 518,387 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 403,387 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc owned about 0.81% of Cullen/Frost Bankers worth $64,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,651 shares of the bank's stock worth $2,370,000 after buying an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,086 shares of the bank's stock worth $280,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank grew its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 12,536 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,683,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 460 shares of the bank's stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. increased its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 5,012 shares of the bank's stock valued at $628,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CFR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from an "underperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $132.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Stephens boosted their price target on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $138.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Cullen/Frost Bankers in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set an "underperform" rating and a $105.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James Financial raised Cullen/Frost Bankers from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $150.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $132.00 to $120.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cullen/Frost Bankers has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $134.79.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CFR traded up $1.30 on Tuesday, reaching $136.50. 462,556 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 456,661. The company has a fifty day moving average of $127.32 and a 200-day moving average of $128.69. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. has a twelve month low of $96.94 and a twelve month high of $147.64. The company has a market capitalization of $8.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.98, a PEG ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE:CFR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The bank reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.17 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $560.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.57 million. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a return on equity of 15.70% and a net margin of 20.89%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.93%. This is an increase from Cullen/Frost Bankers's previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. Cullen/Frost Bankers's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.91%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Matthew Bradley Henson purchased 1,870 shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $16.93 per share, for a total transaction of $31,659.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 5,545 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $93,876.85. The trade was a 50.88% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Company Profile

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Frost Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services in Texas. The company offers commercial banking services to corporations, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, interim construction related to industrial and commercial properties, equipment, inventories and accounts receivables, and acquisitions; and treasury management services, as well as originates commercial leasing services.