Leopold Montanaro Purchases 4,773 Shares of Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) Stock

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) Director Leopold Montanaro purchased 4,773 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.46 per share, for a total transaction of $45,152.58. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 270,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,554,200. This represents a 1.80% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Kearny Financial Stock Performance

Shares of KRNY stock opened at $9.53 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $616.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.72 and a beta of 0.64. Kearny Financial has a 52-week low of $5.97 and a 52-week high of $9.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company’s 50 day moving average is $9.19 and its 200 day moving average is $8.33.

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.02). Kearny Financial had a return on equity of 4.92% and a net margin of 10.45%.The firm had revenue of $45.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.61 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kearny Financial will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kearny Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 12th. Kearny Financial’s payout ratio is presently 77.19%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kearny Financial

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KRNY. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Kearny Financial during the second quarter worth about $84,461,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Kearny Financial by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,348,893 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $22,002,000 after buying an additional 133,683 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kearny Financial by 36.4% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,023,294 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $14,993,000 after buying an additional 539,811 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its holdings in shares of Kearny Financial by 488.8% during the 4th quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,612,987 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $11,952,000 after buying an additional 1,339,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Kearny Financial by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,437,222 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $10,851,000 after buying an additional 81,050 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KRNY has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Kearny Financial from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Zacks Research upgraded Kearny Financial to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Kearny Financial from $9.50 to $10.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.50.

About Kearny Financial

Kearny Financial, Inc was the bank holding company for Kearny Bank, a New Jersey–based community bank offering a full suite of commercial and consumer banking services. Through its subsidiary, the company provided deposit products, lending facilities and electronic banking solutions to individuals, small businesses and middle-market corporations.

The company’s core products included checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, construction financing, equipment financing, home equity lines of credit and consumer installment loans.