First Trust Advisors LP Cuts Position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its stake in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Free Report) by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 140,608 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 22,679 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.26% of Veritex worth $3,819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter worth $45,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Veritex by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $91,000 after buying an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Veritex by 73.5% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,826 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 1,621 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Veritex by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 481 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of VBTX traded up $0.38 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $23.44. 57,156 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 388,496. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $23.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.24. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.74 and a 12-month high of $31.62.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $110.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The business 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 an increase from Veritex's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.75%. Veritex's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.14%.

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.