Morgan Stanley Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by Morgan Stanley in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $48.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 4.17% from the company’s current price.

OZK has been the topic of several other reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of Bank OZK from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, January 5th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $62.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 1st. UBS Group downgraded shares of Bank OZK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Bank OZK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.25.

Bank OZK Stock Performance

Shares of OZK stock opened at $46.08 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.72 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $43.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.45. Bank OZK has a 52 week low of $30.72 and a 52 week high of $52.36.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $406.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $396.81 million. Bank OZK had a net margin of 28.54% and a return on equity of 14.84%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.41 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Bank OZK will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank OZK

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 2.4% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 30,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,377,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new position in Bank OZK during the first quarter worth $445,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in Bank OZK by 26.3% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 615,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,980,000 after purchasing an additional 128,101 shares during the period. Arcus Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Bank OZK by 23.0% during the first quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 1,242 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC bought a new position in Bank OZK during the first quarter worth $225,000. 86.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Bank OZK

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits.