Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $30.25.

VBTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Veritex from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Veritex Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Veritex stock opened at $25.37 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 12.44 and a beta of 1.02. Veritex has a 1-year low of $19.79 and a 1-year high of $31.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $109.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.73 million. Veritex had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 7.51%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Veritex will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from Veritex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 8th. Veritex’s payout ratio is currently 43.14%.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VBTX. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Veritex in the 1st quarter valued at $29,215,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Veritex by 220.5% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 966,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,247,000 after acquiring an additional 664,885 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Veritex by 1,813.1% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 614,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,353,000 after acquiring an additional 582,733 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Veritex in the 4th quarter valued at $14,644,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Veritex by 57.8% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,239,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,675,000 after acquiring an additional 454,015 shares during the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Veritex Company Profile

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.