Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) Stock Price Crosses Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL)’s share price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $35.86 and traded as high as $38.70. Stellarone shares last traded at $38.5830, with a volume of 289,490 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.00.

Stellarone Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82 and a beta of 0.70.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.41 million. Stellarone had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 17.56%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Stellarone Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Stellarone’s payout ratio is presently 29.27%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stellarone

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc purchased a new position in Stellarone in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,194,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Stellarone by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,275,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $101,354,000 after buying an additional 18,749 shares during the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Stellarone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $611,000. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Stellarone by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its holdings in Stellarone by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 172,890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,349,000 after buying an additional 3,687 shares during the last quarter. 54.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Stellarone Company Profile

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers.