DA Davidson Reiterates Buy Rating for United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB)

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at DA Davidson in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $40.00 price objective on the stock. DA Davidson’s target price points to a potential upside of 14.45% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on UCB. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 target price on shares of United Community Banks in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upgraded United Community Banks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Hovde Group cut their price objective on United Community Banks from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings raised United Community Banks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Stephens raised their target price on United Community Banks from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.80.

United Community Banks Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of United Community Banks stock traded down $0.40 on Wednesday, reaching $34.95. The company had a trading volume of 466,535 shares, compared to its average volume of 915,155. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $34.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.42. The firm has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85 and a beta of 0.81. United Community Banks has a 52-week low of $28.65 and a 52-week high of $37.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $279.28 million during the quarter. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 22.05%. Sell-side analysts predict that United Community Banks will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at United Community Banks

In other United Community Banks news, EVP Richard Bradshaw sold 1,510 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.09, for a total value of $49,965.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 84,497 shares in the company, valued at $2,796,005.73. The trade was a 1.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of United Community Banks

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in United Community Banks by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,514,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,150,000 after purchasing an additional 120,156 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of United Community Banks by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,520,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,315,000 after buying an additional 182,397 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of United Community Banks by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,805,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,362,000 after buying an additional 124,347 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of United Community Banks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,450,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of United Community Banks by 70.6% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,380,627 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,103,000 after buying an additional 571,296 shares during the period. 82.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key United Community Banks News

Here are the key news stories impacting United Community Banks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: The company said loan growth remained strong, with about 7% ex-Navitas loan growth expected for Q3, while management is targeting a lower $150 million Q4 expense base, which could support profitability. Article title
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted sixth consecutive quarter of margin expansion and continued focus on core banking operations, which suggests underlying fundamentals are still improving. Article title
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst upgrade framed UCB as “finally worth banking on,” citing transformation efforts, core growth, solid asset quality, and benefits from strategic moves including the Peach State Bank & Trust acquisition. Article title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several recaps and transcript articles reiterated that Q2 EPS was $0.71 versus $0.66 a year ago, showing improvement even though results missed Wall Street estimates. Article title
• Neutral Sentiment: Fair-value commentary suggested the stock may still look inexpensive, but earnings are viewed as only fair, which is unlikely to be a strong immediate catalyst either way. Article title
• Negative Sentiment: UCB reported sales below analyst estimates, reinforcing concerns that the quarter was good operationally but not strong enough to meet market expectations. Article title

About United Community Banks

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.