Stock Buyback Program Declared by Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, June 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OZK has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Bank OZK in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Bank OZK from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised Bank OZK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 17th. Weiss Ratings raised Bank OZK from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Bank OZK from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.33.

Bank OZK Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of OZK stock traded down $0.48 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $51.63. 831,205 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,054,538. Bank OZK has a 12-month low of $42.37 and a 12-month high of $53.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $48.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $47.84.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Bank OZK had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 25.27%.The company had revenue of $424.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $422.62 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bank OZK will post 6.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank OZK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 13th were given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 13th. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is currently 30.62%.

Bank OZK Company Profile

Bank OZK, formerly known as Bank of the Ozarks, is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Established in 1903, the bank offers a full suite of banking products and services to both individual and corporate clients. Through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisitions, Bank OZK has built a diversified lending portfolio and a strong deposit franchise.

The bank’s core operations focus on commercial real estate lending, including acquisition, development and construction financing.