Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) Downgraded to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

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

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $19.26 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $19.88 and its 200-day moving average is $20.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 1.34. Veritex has a 52 week low of $14.88 and a 52 week high of $24.46.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). Veritex had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 14.51%. The business had revenue of $77.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.67 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. Veritex’s revenue for the quarter was down 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Veritex will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.40%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 2.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,936,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $144,924,000 after buying an additional 182,930 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,772,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,777,000 after buying an additional 52,933 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,561,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $99,998,000 after buying an additional 52,720 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 9.3% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,686,003 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,046,000 after buying an additional 229,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Veritex by 32.3% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,641,794 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $77,299,000 after buying an additional 645,296 shares in the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently 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.