United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) EVP Sells $885,250.00 in Stock

United Community Banks, Inc. (NYSE:UCB) EVP Jefferson Harralson sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.41, for a total value of $885,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 37,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,325,502.53. This represents a 40.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

United Community Banks Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of United Community Banks stock opened at $35.34 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.57. United Community Banks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.65 and a 12-month high of $37.18. The company has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $279.28 million for the quarter. United Community Banks had a net margin of 24.43% and a return on equity of 9.61%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that United Community Banks, Inc. will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

United Community Banks Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. United Community Banks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.89%.

Institutional Trading of United Community Banks

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of United Community Banks by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,514,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,150,000 after purchasing an additional 120,156 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in United Community Banks by 2.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,520,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,315,000 after buying an additional 182,397 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in United Community Banks by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,805,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,362,000 after buying an additional 124,347 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of United Community Banks during the 4th quarter valued at $48,450,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of United Community Banks by 70.6% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,380,627 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,103,000 after acquiring an additional 571,296 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of United Community Banks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of United Community Banks in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings raised United Community Banks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded United Community Banks from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded United Community Banks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, United Community Banks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.80.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc (NYSE: UCB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Blairsville, Georgia. It operates primarily through its subsidiary, United Community Bank, providing a broad range of banking and financial services to individual, business and governmental customers. The company’s core offerings include deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, mortgage origination, treasury and cash management services, and wealth management.

In addition to traditional banking products such as checking, savings and money market accounts, United Community Bank specializes in commercial real estate financing, small business administration (SBA) loans, equipment financing and agricultural lending.