Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires New Position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 256,784 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,974,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.47% of Veritex at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VBTX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Veritex by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,874,917 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $105,243,000 after purchasing an additional 39,746 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Veritex by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Veritex by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 789,909 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $21,454,000 after acquiring an additional 14,924 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Veritex by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 741,274 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $20,133,000 after purchasing an additional 8,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 712,727 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $19,358,000 after acquiring an additional 81,355 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Veritex Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Veritex stock traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $23.23. The company had a trading volume of 39,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 391,752. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.74 and a twelve month high of $31.62. The company's 50-day moving average is $23.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.90 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Veritex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. This is a positive change from Veritex's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Veritex's payout ratio is currently 43.14%.

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.