American Century Companies Inc. Grows Stock Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. $PEBO

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 915,692 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 60,921 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $27,965,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Peoples Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $8,294,000. CSM Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $4,887,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Peoples Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,721,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 46.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 101,653 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,015,000 after acquiring an additional 32,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 87.2% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 64,668 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,918,000 after buying an additional 30,121 shares during the last quarter. 60.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Kevin R. Reeves purchased 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $29.11 per share, for a total transaction of $36,387.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,031.05. The trade was a 10.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.22, for a total value of $30,220.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 23,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $718,238.74. This trade represents a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 4,110 shares of company stock valued at $118,832. Corporate insiders own 3.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on PEBO shares. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $33.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research raised shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $36.00 to $33.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.13.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Down 0.6%

PEBO stock opened at $29.63 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $29.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.85. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 12 month low of $26.21 and a 12 month high of $35.75. The company has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.36 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.07. Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 16.57% and a return on equity of 9.45%. The business had revenue of $118.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.88 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 4th were given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 4th. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.34%.

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.