William Blair Investment Management LLC Lowers Position in Stellarone Corp $STEL

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) by 55.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 514,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 640,315 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.96% of Stellarone worth $15,923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Osaic Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Stellarone during the second quarter valued at approximately $62,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Stellarone during the third quarter valued at approximately $83,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Stellarone during the third quarter valued at approximately $112,000. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Stellarone by 60.1% during the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 4,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 1,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Stellarone during the second quarter valued at approximately $202,000. 54.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Stellarone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE STEL opened at $37.42 on Tuesday. Stellarone Corp has a twelve month low of $26.08 and a twelve month high of $40.21. The firm has a market cap of $1.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.92 and a 200 day moving average of $34.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Stellarone had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 6.54%. The company had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.41 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Stellarone Corp will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Stellarone’s payout ratio is presently 29.27%.

Stellarone Company Profile

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.