United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) Board of Directors Initiates Share Buyback Plan

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, December 8th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 2.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of United Community Banks in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.33.

United Community Banks Trading Up 0.5%

UCB stock opened at $31.37 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $30.47. United Community Banks has a 12-month low of $22.93 and a 12-month high of $34.57.

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.05. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 9.42% and a net margin of 20.67%.The business had revenue of $276.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $270.85 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

United Community Banks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. United Community Banks’s payout ratio is currently 39.68%.

Insider Transactions at United Community Banks

In other news, EVP Richard Bradshaw sold 1,654 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.23, for a total value of $50,000.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 75,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,274,081.98. This represents a 2.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc operates as the financial holding company for United Community Bank that provides financial products and services to commercial, retail, government, education, energy, health care, and real estate sectors. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts.