Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. Sells 16,003 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. cut its holdings in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 407,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,003 shares during the period. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C.’s holdings in Veritex were worth $11,060,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Veritex by 63.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,095,000 after purchasing an additional 45,787 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Veritex by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Veritex by 24.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,618,000 after buying an additional 122,809 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veritex by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 264,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,173,000 after acquiring an additional 7,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Veritex in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $276,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VBTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of Veritex from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Veritex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James cut Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Veritex in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Hovde Group raised Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.25.

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of VBTX opened at $24.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.74 and a twelve month high of $31.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.31 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.56 and a 200-day moving average of $26.32.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. Veritex had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. The firm had revenue of $109.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. This is a boost from Veritex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.67%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is 43.14%.

About Veritex

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.