Piper Sandler Cuts Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT) Price Target to $33.00

Key Points

• Piper Sandler cut its price target on Beacon Financial from $35 to $33 while maintaining an "overweight" rating, with the new target implying roughly a 15.97% upside from the current share price.
• Beacon missed quarterly EPS expectations ($0.70 vs. $0.83 consensus), reported a net margin of 6.97% and ROE of 9.02%, and its board authorized a $50 million share buyback (about 1.9% of shares outstanding).

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT - Get Free Report) had its price target cut by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $35.00 to $33.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the stock. Piper Sandler's price target points to a potential upside of 15.97% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on BBT. Zacks Research upgraded Beacon Financial from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Hovde Group reiterated a "market perform" rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Beacon Financial in a research report on Friday. Raymond James Financial cut Beacon Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Beacon Financial from $36.00 to $33.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $31.75.

Beacon Financial Price Performance

BBT stock opened at $28.46 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51 and a beta of 0.55. Beacon Financial has a one year low of $22.81 and a one year high of $32.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.13). Beacon Financial had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 9.02%. The company had revenue of $214.72 million for the quarter. On average, analysts predict that Beacon Financial will post 3.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Beacon Financial announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Michael W. Mccurdy sold 17,333 shares of Beacon Financial stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.04, for a total value of $538,016.32. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,555 shares of the company's stock, valued at $793,227.20. The trade was a 40.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.09% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Beacon Financial

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Beacon Financial in the fourth quarter worth $204,000. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth $736,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth $339,000. Financial Planning Hawaii Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $274,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Beacon Financial

Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp.

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