Sterling Bancorp (NYSE:STL) Receives $22.57 Consensus PT from Analysts

Sterling Bancorp (NYSE:STL) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the nine analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $22.57.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on STL shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Sterling Bancorp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 22nd. B. Riley raised their price objective on shares of Sterling Bancorp from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 7th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Sterling Bancorp from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Monday, December 28th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Sterling Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 31st. Finally, Hovde Group upgraded shares of Sterling Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Friday, January 22nd.

In other Sterling Bancorp news, insider Javier L. Evan sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.84, for a total value of $71,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $646,159.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Thomas X. Geisel sold 8,452 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.72, for a total transaction of $192,029.44. Company insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Sterling Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,872,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Sterling Bancorp by 81,198.3% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,713,769 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,928,000 after acquiring an additional 1,711,661 shares in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Sterling Bancorp in the third quarter valued at $13,699,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Sterling Bancorp by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,034,155 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $144,454,000 after acquiring an additional 750,861 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sterling Bancorp by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,780,918 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $50,001,000 after acquiring an additional 669,877 shares in the last quarter. 81.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of STL traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $22.63. 308,399 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,951,520. Sterling Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $8.99 and a fifty-two week high of $26.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.37 and a beta of 1.68. The business’s 50 day moving average is $23.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Sterling Bancorp (NYSE:STL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. Sterling Bancorp had a net margin of 21.32% and a return on equity of 5.83%. The business had revenue of $256.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $247.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.54 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Sterling Bancorp will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 1st were issued a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 29th. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. Sterling Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.53%.

About Sterling Bancorp

Sterling Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Sterling National Bank that provides various banking products and services to commercial, consumer, and municipal clients in the United States. The company accepts deposit products, including interest and non-interest checking, savings, money market, time, and demand deposits, as well as certificates of deposit.

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