Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Downgraded by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report report published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on VBTX. Raymond James upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Stephens lifted their price objective on Veritex from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com cut Veritex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Veritex from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.40.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VBTX opened at $27.08 on Thursday. Veritex has a 12 month low of $16.84 and a 12 month high of $28.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50 day moving average is $25.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.65.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last announced its 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. Veritex had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The business had revenue of $113.17 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.22 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Veritex’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Veritex 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. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is 46.51%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veritex

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Veritex by 67.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 807,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,248,000 after buying an additional 325,569 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates acquired a new position in shares of Veritex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,971,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in Veritex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $240,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Veritex by 163.8% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 5,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the 3rd quarter valued at $949,000. Institutional investors own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

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.