Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Purchases 325,569 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 67.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 807,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 325,569 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Veritex were worth $21,248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 27,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $578,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in Veritex by 1.4% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 47,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Veritex by 7.4% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 10,622 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd raised its holdings in Veritex by 16.5% in the second quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 5,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Veritex during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on VBTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James upgraded Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Stephens boosted their price target on Veritex from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.40.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of VBTX opened at $27.08 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.57. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.75 and a beta of 1.37. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $16.84 and a one year high of $28.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $113.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.22 million. Veritex had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 7.88%. Veritex’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.13 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.51%.

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.