Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 578,752 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Free Report) by 43.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 766,181 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 578,752 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned 1.41% of Veritex worth $20,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Veritex by 63.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,095,000 after acquiring an additional 45,787 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,057,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $276,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veritex by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 264,107 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $7,173,000 after acquiring an additional 7,882 shares during the period. Finally, True North Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $443,000. Institutional investors own 88.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on VBTX. Raymond James downgraded Veritex from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Veritex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Hovde Group raised Veritex from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $31.50 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Veritex from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $30.25.

Veritex Trading Down 0.4%

VBTX stock opened at $25.01 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $23.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.08. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.74 and a fifty-two week high of $31.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.03. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. The firm had revenue of $109.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $110.73 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Analysts expect that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Veritex's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 8th. Veritex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.14%.

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.

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