Norges Bank Buys Shares of 1,551,895 United Community Banks, Inc. $UCB

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of United Community Banks, Inc. (NYSE:UCB) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 1,551,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,450,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of United Community Banks by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,514,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,150,000 after acquiring an additional 120,156 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in United Community Banks by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,337,524 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,681,000 after purchasing an additional 61,465 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in United Community Banks by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,680,961 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,698,000 after purchasing an additional 73,775 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in United Community Banks by 125.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 774,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,286,000 after purchasing an additional 431,491 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in United Community Banks by 105.9% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 766,552 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,031,000 after purchasing an additional 394,263 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of United Community Banks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of United Community Banks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of United Community Banks from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of United Community Banks from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 17th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered United Community Banks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.40.

United Community Banks Stock Performance

Shares of United Community Banks stock opened at $33.32 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.68. United Community Banks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.23 and a 12 month high of $36.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.70. The firm had revenue of $278.27 million during the quarter. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 22.05%.The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that United Community Banks, Inc. will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

United Community Banks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. United Community Banks’s dividend payout ratio is 36.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Richard Bradshaw sold 1,510 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.09, for a total value of $49,965.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 84,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,796,005.73. This trade represents a 1.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

United Community Banks Profile

United Community Banks, Inc (NYSE: UCB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia. It operates primarily through its subsidiary, United Community Bank, providing a broad range of banking and financial services to individual, business and governmental customers. The company’s core offerings include deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, mortgage origination, treasury and cash management services, and wealth management.

In addition to traditional banking products such as checking, savings and money market accounts, United Community Bank specializes in commercial real estate financing, small business administration (SBA) loans, equipment financing and agricultural lending.