Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 37,200 Beacon Financial Corporation $BBT

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 37,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,116,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the fourth quarter worth $204,000. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $736,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $339,000. Financial Planning Hawaii Inc. acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $274,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 83.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BBT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research cut Beacon Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Beacon Financial from $36.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Beacon Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.00.

Beacon Financial Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of BBT stock opened at $30.19 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Beacon Financial Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.81 and a twelve month high of $32.83. The company has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95 and a beta of 0.55.

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.13). Beacon Financial had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 6.97%.The company had revenue of $214.72 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that Beacon Financial Corporation will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Beacon Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.3225 per share. This represents a $1.29 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Beacon Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 106.61%.

Beacon Financial declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 29th that permits the company to repurchase $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Beacon Financial

Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp.