Peoples Bancorp Inc. $PEBO Position Cut by Empowered Funds LLC

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC reduced its stake in Peoples Bancorp Inc. by 8.3%, owning 131,444 shares valued at $3.9 million after selling 11,842 shares in Q1.
• Several institutional investors, including GAMMA Investing LLC and CWM LLC, increased their positions significantly, with GAMMA raising its stake by 1,426.3%.
• Peoples Bancorp recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, yielding 5.4%, and has seen a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from analysts.

Empowered Funds LLC cut its position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO - Free Report) by 8.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 131,444 shares of the bank's stock after selling 11,842 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned approximately 0.37% of Peoples Bancorp worth $3,899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PEBO. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1,426.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,610 shares of the bank's stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 2,439 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 86.7% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,976 shares of the bank's stock valued at $148,000 after buying an additional 2,311 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $215,000. Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the first quarter worth $229,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the first quarter worth $242,000. 60.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.83, for a total transaction of $30,830.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 24,330 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $750,093.90. This represents a 3.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Dwight Eric Smith bought 1,060 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $30.27 per share, with a total value of $32,086.20. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 6,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $211,859.73. The trade was a 17.85% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.41% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on PEBO. Wall Street Zen raised Peoples Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $35.25.

Peoples Bancorp Trading Up 2.1%

PEBO stock traded up $0.65 during trading on Thursday, reaching $30.79. 24,677 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 152,593. The business's 50 day moving average price is $30.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.74. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.21 and a 52-week high of $37.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 0.67.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.18). Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 16.88% and a return on equity of 9.46%. The firm had revenue of $115.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $113.20 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Peoples Bancorp's payout ratio is currently 56.16%.

Peoples Bancorp Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.