Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 148,997 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,838 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.27% of Veritex worth $4,047,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Veritex by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 53,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,460,000 after acquiring an additional 3,112 shares during the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veritex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $306,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in shares of Veritex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $847,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of Veritex by 37.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 34,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $944,000 after buying an additional 9,559 shares during the period. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP boosted its position in Veritex by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 161,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,397,000 after buying an additional 33,714 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VBTX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James lowered shares of Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.90.

Veritex Price Performance

VBTX opened at $22.12 on Wednesday. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.74 and a 12-month high of $31.62. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.46.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $109.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.73 million. Veritex had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. Research analysts predict that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Veritex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Veritex’s payout ratio is currently 41.03%.

About Veritex

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.