Insider Selling: Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Director Sells 5,669 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Director John Sughrue sold 5,669 shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. for a total of $181,408, reducing his position by 10.07%.
• Veritex recently reported a quarterly EPS of $0.56, exceeding analysts' estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.22 with a yield of 2.7%.
• Wall Street analysts have a largely positive outlook on Veritex, with the average price target set at $33.25 and several brokerages issuing “buy” ratings.

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) Director John Sughrue sold 5,669 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $181,408.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 50,652 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,620,864. The trade was a 10.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VBTX traded up $1.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $33.45. 1,521,768 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 718,198. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.37 and a 12 month high of $33.69. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.64 and a 200-day moving average of $26.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93 and a beta of 1.08.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. Veritex had a net margin of 14.83% and a return on equity of 7.55%. The business had revenue of $109.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 7th. Veritex's payout ratio is presently 41.90%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Continental Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Veritex during the second quarter valued at approximately $349,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in Veritex by 7.0% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 184,977 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,828,000 after purchasing an additional 12,061 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in Veritex by 263.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,651 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $200,000 after purchasing an additional 5,544 shares during the last quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Veritex by 5.1% during the second quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 9,434 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Veritex by 50.6% during the second quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,042 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on VBTX. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $34.00 target price (up from $30.00) on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. William Blair raised shares of Veritex to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Veritex in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veritex has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.25.

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.