Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 18,749 Shares of Stellarone Corp $STEL

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,275,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,749 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.06% of Stellarone worth $101,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in Stellarone by 8.1% in the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,154,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,041,000 after acquiring an additional 86,363 shares in the last quarter. EJF Capital LLC grew its position in Stellarone by 3.5% in the third quarter. EJF Capital LLC now owns 17,564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $533,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in Stellarone by 26.5% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 49,363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,498,000 after acquiring an additional 10,336 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Stellarone by 15.4% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 180,246 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,469,000 after acquiring an additional 24,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Stellarone in the third quarter worth $375,000. 54.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on STEL shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Stellarone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Stellarone from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stellarone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Stock Performance

Stellarone stock opened at $36.32 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.87 and a 200-day moving average of $34.43. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.71 and a beta of 0.72. Stellarone Corp has a 1-year low of $26.08 and a 1-year high of $40.21.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.41 million. Stellarone had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 6.54%. Stellarone’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Stellarone Corp will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Stellarone Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.27%.

About Stellarone

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers.