Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Buys New Stake in Stellarone Corp $STEL

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 532,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $19,477,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. owned about 1.04% of Stellarone as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of STEL. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Stellarone during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,677,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Stellarone in the 1st quarter valued at about $743,000. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new position in Stellarone in the first quarter worth about $5,851,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Stellarone by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,275,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $101,354,000 after acquiring an additional 18,749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc bought a new stake in Stellarone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,194,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.15% of the company’s stock.

Stellarone Stock Performance

STEL opened at $39.32 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $38.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.16. Stellarone Corp has a one year low of $27.88 and a one year high of $40.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.41 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. Stellarone’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

About Stellarone

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.