6,774 Shares in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) Acquired by Balyasny Asset Management L.P.

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,774 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 172.8% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,094 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 815.7% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,108 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 987 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $241,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $243,000. 60.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PEBO shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. DA Davidson cut their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Stephens decreased their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $37.50 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of Peoples Bancorp stock opened at $30.82 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.31 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $29.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.53. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.21 and a 52-week high of $37.07.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $113.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $112.76 million. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 19th. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.32%. This is an increase from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. Peoples Bancorp’s payout ratio is 52.06%.

Insider Activity at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.20, for a total transaction of $30,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 25,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $775,717.20. The trade was a 3.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.