Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 95,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,653 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Banner were worth $6,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Banner by 97.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 75,768 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,512,000 after acquiring an additional 37,390 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Banner by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 823,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,073,000 after purchasing an additional 11,808 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Banner by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,885 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,413,000 after purchasing an additional 29,174 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in Banner by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 11,211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $749,000 after buying an additional 978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in Banner during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BANR. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Banner from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Banner in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Banner currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.20.

Banner Stock Up 1.4 %

BANR opened at $60.49 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.10. Banner Co. has a 12 month low of $43.63 and a 12 month high of $78.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Banner (NASDAQ:BANR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $159.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $159.72 million. Banner had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 10.03%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Banner Co. will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banner Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Banner’s payout ratio is currently 37.72%.

Banner Company Profile

Banner Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Banner Bank that engages in the provision of commercial banking and financial products and services to individuals, businesses, and public sector entities in the United States. It accepts various deposit instruments, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, regular savings accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as treasury management services and retirement savings plans.