Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Tuesday.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on VBTX. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Veritex from $23.50 to $25.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Veritex from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and set a $24.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a research note on Monday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $24.13.

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of Veritex stock opened at $19.32 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 1.34. Veritex has a 1-year low of $14.88 and a 1-year high of $24.46. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $19.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.19.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $77.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.67 million. Veritex had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 14.51%. Veritex’s quarterly revenue was down 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.14%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.40%.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VBTX. Point72 Middle East FZE bought a new stake in shares of Veritex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Veritex by 323.2% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Veritex in the first quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Veritex Company Profile

Veritex Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company accepts deposit products include demand, savings, money market, and time accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate and general commercial, mortgage warehouse loans, residential real estate, construction and land, farmland, paycheck protection program, 1-4 family residential, agricultural, multi-family residential, and consumer loans, as well as purchased receivables financing.