Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $743,000 in Stellarone Corp $STEL

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 20,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $743,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Stellarone by 26.9% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 9,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after buying an additional 1,948 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Stellarone by 178.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 26,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after acquiring an additional 16,977 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in Stellarone by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 29,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,281 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of Stellarone by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 86,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,394,000 after buying an additional 15,115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of Stellarone by 105.0% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 195,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,404,000 after purchasing an additional 100,067 shares during the last quarter. 54.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stellarone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE STEL remained flat at $39.32 during midday trading on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.70. Stellarone Corp has a twelve month low of $27.88 and a twelve month high of $40.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.90 and a 200-day moving average of $36.37.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. Stellarone had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 17.56%.The company had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.41 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.46 earnings per share. Stellarone’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio is 29.27%.

Stellarone 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.