Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $32.00.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BBT. Raymond James Financial cut Beacon Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Beacon Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Hovde Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price (down from $33.00) on shares of Beacon Financial in a report on Friday, May 1st.

Beacon Financial Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Beacon Financial stock opened at $31.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.78 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.16. Beacon Financial has a 1-year low of $22.81 and a 1-year high of $32.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

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

Beacon Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.3225 per share. This represents a $1.29 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Beacon Financial’s payout ratio is presently 106.61%.

Beacon Financial announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 29th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Beacon Financial

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Beacon Financial by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 626,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,783,000 after buying an additional 13,249 shares during the period. Amundi raised its position in shares of Beacon Financial by 146.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 49,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,495,000 after buying an additional 29,636 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Beacon Financial by 27.4% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 101,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,054,000 after buying an additional 21,870 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Beacon Financial by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 36,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 1,906 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Beacon Financial by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 331,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,932,000 after buying an additional 22,180 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Beacon Financial Company Profile

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.