Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI) Holdings Decreased by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 34,899 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 1,700 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Northwest Bancshares were worth $436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NWBI. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 6.5% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 50,662 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $684,000 after buying an additional 3,072 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 2.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,713,076 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $23,144,000 after buying an additional 47,965 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 14.1% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 113,168 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,529,000 after buying an additional 14,002 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. acquired a new stake in Northwest Bancshares during the first quarter valued at $204,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Northwest Bancshares by 55.4% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 65,449 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $884,000 after purchasing an additional 23,337 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Scott J. Watson purchased 5,000 shares of Northwest Bancshares stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.90 per share, with a total value of $64,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 35,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $455,137.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Northwest Bancshares from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Northwest Bancshares Price Performance

NWBI opened at $10.78 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.17 and a beta of 0.60. Northwest Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.80 and a 1 year high of $13.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.47.

Northwest Bancshares (NASDAQ:NWBI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24. Northwest Bancshares had a return on equity of 9.21% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm had revenue of $186.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $133.06 million. Analysts forecast that Northwest Bancshares, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.42%. Northwest Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.47%.

About Northwest Bancshares

Northwest Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Northwest Bank, a state-chartered savings bank that provides personal and business banking solutions. The company accepts various deposits, including checking, savings, money market deposit, term certificate, and individual retirement accounts.