Probity Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR)

Probity Advisors Inc. decreased its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) by 12.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,855 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cullen/Frost Bankers were worth $518,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 13,083 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,756,000 after buying an additional 1,003 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 234.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 436,393 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,814,000 after purchasing an additional 305,921 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Cullen/Frost Bankers in the 4th quarter valued at about $389,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,375,303 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $855,884,000 after buying an additional 66,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,339 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $583,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Stock Down 0.4%

CFR stock opened at $126.60 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $119.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $130.92. The company has a market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.46 and a beta of 0.67. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. has a 52 week low of $94.09 and a 52 week high of $147.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE:CFR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The bank reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.17 by $0.13. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 20.44%. The firm had revenue of $560.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $540.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.15 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. will post 8.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.16%. This is a boost from Cullen/Frost Bankers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. Cullen/Frost Bankers’s payout ratio is presently 43.91%.

Insider Transactions at Cullen/Frost Bankers

In other news, CAO Matthew Bradley Henson bought 1,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $16.93 per share, for a total transaction of $31,659.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,545 shares in the company, valued at $93,876.85. This represents a 50.88% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CFR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson lowered Cullen/Frost Bankers from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $143.00 in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $147.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Stephens boosted their target price on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $138.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from an “underperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $132.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.93.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Company Profile

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Frost Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services in Texas. The company offers commercial banking services to corporations, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, interim construction related to industrial and commercial properties, equipment, inventories and accounts receivables, and acquisitions; and treasury management services, as well as originates commercial leasing services.