Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE:NIC) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Stephens lowered their price target on the stock from $92.00 to $88.00. The stock had previously closed at $77.71, but opened at $75.39. Stephens currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Nicolet Bankshares shares last traded at $75.71, with a volume of 25,683 shares trading hands.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Nicolet Bankshares from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Nicolet Bankshares from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Nicolet Bankshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Nicolet Bankshares from $88.00 to $82.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $87.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nicolet Bankshares

In other news, EVP Eric James Witczak sold 2,053 shares of Nicolet Bankshares stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.45, for a total transaction of $169,269.85. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 41,427 shares in the company, valued at $3,415,656.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Eric James Witczak sold 2,053 shares of Nicolet Bankshares stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.45, for a total transaction of $169,269.85. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 41,427 shares in the company, valued at $3,415,656.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robert Bruce Atwell sold 2,000 shares of Nicolet Bankshares stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $163,860.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 42,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,513,895.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 16.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nicolet Bankshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NIC. Wells Fargo & Company MN purchased a new stake in Nicolet Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Citigroup Inc. purchased a new stake in Nicolet Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY purchased a new stake in Nicolet Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in Nicolet Bankshares by 92.8% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 439 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Nicolet Bankshares by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,569 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. 43.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nicolet Bankshares Trading Up 1.3 %

The business’s fifty day moving average is $80.56 and its 200-day moving average is $77.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of 11.86 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 16th. The company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.12. Nicolet Bankshares had a net margin of 20.60% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The firm had revenue of $89.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.30 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. will post 6.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nicolet Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. Nicolet Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.41%.

About Nicolet Bankshares

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Nicolet National Bank that provides banking products and services for businesses and individuals in Wisconsin and Michigan. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market accounts; various certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts.