StockNews.com Upgrades Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) to “Hold”

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on PEBO. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $34.00 price objective on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down previously from $36.00) on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. Hovde Group started coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research note on Monday, April 1st. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Peoples Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.40.

Peoples Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of PEBO opened at $29.76 on Friday. Peoples Bancorp has a twelve month low of $23.05 and a twelve month high of $34.85. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.10. Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 20.17% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The business had revenue of $112.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.00 million. Equities analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp will post 3.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Peoples Bancorp

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,412,411 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,444,000 after purchasing an additional 51,087 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,815,196 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,281,000 after purchasing an additional 213,264 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,733,426 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $43,994,000 after purchasing an additional 12,449 shares in the last quarter. Private Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 634,249 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,097,000 after purchasing an additional 50,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peoples Bank OH grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Peoples Bank OH now owns 609,323 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,465,000 after purchasing an additional 5,721 shares in the last quarter. 60.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.