Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 123,292 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,096 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned approximately 0.23% of Veritex worth $3,349,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VBTX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Veritex by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,874,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $105,243,000 after acquiring an additional 39,746 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Veritex by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,803,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,149,000 after acquiring an additional 125,189 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 789,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,454,000 after acquiring an additional 14,924 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Veritex by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 741,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,133,000 after buying an additional 8,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Veritex by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 712,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,358,000 after buying an additional 81,355 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VBTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Veritex from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.25.

Veritex Stock Up 0.2%

VBTX stock opened at $25.00 on Thursday. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.74 and a 12-month high of $31.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.82 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.14.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.03. Veritex had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. The company had revenue of $109.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.73 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. This is an increase from Veritex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.14%.

Veritex Profile

Veritex Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company accepts deposit products include demand, savings, money market, and time accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate and general commercial, mortgage warehouse loans, residential real estate, construction and land, farmland, paycheck protection program, 1-4 family residential, agricultural, multi-family residential, and consumer loans, as well as purchased receivables financing.