Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Acquires 14,658 Shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 34.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 57,078 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 14,658 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $1,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 0.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,465,385 shares of the bank’s stock worth $73,960,000 after buying an additional 6,712 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,904,357 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $56,388,000 after acquiring an additional 18,272 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 586,015 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $17,580,000 after acquiring an additional 123,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 318,966 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,569,000 after acquiring an additional 4,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 136,348 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,103,000 after purchasing an additional 6,834 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In other Peoples Bancorp news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.13, for a total transaction of $34,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,000,759.86. This represents a 3.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Matthew Edgell sold 3,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.36, for a total value of $103,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 16,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,921.12. The trade was a 15.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,445 shares of company stock valued at $348,956. Company insiders own 3.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.50.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PEBO opened at $35.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $32.07 and its 200-day moving average is $30.96. The company has a market cap of $1.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.74 and a 52-week high of $37.07.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.07. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.84% and a net margin of 20.16%. The firm had revenue of $158.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $112.30 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.06 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Peoples Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 45.58%.

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.