Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 10,654 Shares of Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. $PB

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) by 121.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 19,417 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,654 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Prosperity Bancshares were worth $1,342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 48.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,122,031 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $140,797,000 after buying an additional 695,114 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 231.1% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 53,875 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,575,000 after buying an additional 37,602 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 44.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 159,871 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,607,000 after buying an additional 48,943 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 634.1% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 16,371 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,086,000 after buying an additional 14,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Prosperity Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,488,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PB. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered shares of Prosperity Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Prosperity Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Prosperity Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Prosperity Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.31.

Insider Transactions at Prosperity Bancshares

In other Prosperity Bancshares news, Director Ned S. Holmes sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.67, for a total transaction of $40,002.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 42,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,807. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,100 shares of company stock worth $834,609. 3.96% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Prosperity Bancshares Stock Performance

Prosperity Bancshares stock opened at $69.78 on Thursday. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.06 and a 52-week high of $77.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $68.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.88. The firm has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.18, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.66.

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The bank reported $1.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.01. Prosperity Bancshares had a net margin of 31.22% and a return on equity of 7.11%. The firm had revenue of $317.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $319.30 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. will post 6.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Prosperity Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Prosperity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.88%.

Prosperity Bancshares Profile

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc is a holding company for Prosperity Bank, offering a broad range of commercial and consumer banking services across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Through its network of branches and digital platforms, the company provides deposit products, business and real estate lending, treasury management, mortgage origination and servicing, as well as wealth management and trust services.

Originally chartered in 1911 as First National Bank in McKinney, Texas, the organization rebranded to Prosperity Bank in 2009 following a series of strategic acquisitions aimed at deepening its regional presence.