Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 31,467 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 316 shares during the quarter. Shoker Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $997,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,027,413 shares of the bank’s stock worth $30,915,000 after purchasing an additional 14,426 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Peoples Bancorp by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 850,654 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,601,000 after buying an additional 22,285 shares during the last quarter. Peoples Bank OH lifted its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Peoples Bank OH now owns 590,905 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,726,000 after acquiring an additional 6,250 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 153.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 352,488 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,606,000 after acquiring an additional 213,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 295,203 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,883,000 after acquiring an additional 5,071 shares during the period. 60.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Peoples Bancorp Trading Up 0.5 %

PEBO stock opened at $31.74 on Friday. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.74 and a 52-week high of $37.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.59 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.06.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.01. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.04 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PEBO. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $37.50 target price on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Peoples Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.02, for a total value of $31,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,686 shares in the company, valued at $858,819.72. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,000 shares of company stock worth $98,670. Corporate insiders own 3.46% of the company’s stock.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.