Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Veritex Holdings, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with an average price target of $33.25.
• The company recently reported earnings of $0.56 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share.
• Insider transactions showed significant activity, with CEO C Malcolm Holland III selling 125,762 shares, reflecting a 29.92% decrease in his ownership of the stock.

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $33.25.

VBTX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. William Blair upgraded shares of Veritex to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $34.00 price target (up from $30.00) on shares of Veritex in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Lavonda Renfro sold 53,411 shares of Veritex stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.38, for a total value of $1,729,448.18. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 60,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,949,567.42. The trade was a 47.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Cara Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of Veritex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.53, for a total transaction of $325,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,372 shares in the company, valued at $565,111.16. This represents a 36.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 315,030 shares of company stock worth $10,180,219 in the last 90 days. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veritex

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VBTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Veritex by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 712,727 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $19,358,000 after purchasing an additional 81,355 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Veritex by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 89,422 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,429,000 after purchasing an additional 16,001 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in shares of Veritex by 37.9% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 34,758 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,559 shares during the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $306,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veritex by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 53,767 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,460,000 after buying an additional 3,112 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company's stock.

Veritex Stock Down 0.2%

NASDAQ VBTX traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $30.87. 80,480 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 560,882. Veritex has a 12 month low of $20.37 and a 12 month high of $33.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a PE ratio of 14.72 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.77.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $109.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veritex will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 7th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Veritex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.90%.

Veritex Company 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.