Cetera Investment Advisers Increases Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,488 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 782 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers owned 0.06% of Peoples Bancorp worth $713,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 320,656 shares of the bank’s stock worth $10,162,000 after purchasing an additional 31,838 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 802,524 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,398 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Peoples Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at about $215,000. Black Maple Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Black Maple Capital Management LP now owns 77,502 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,456,000 after buying an additional 18,693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 79,039 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,505,000 after buying an additional 1,956 shares in the last quarter. 60.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PEBO opened at $29.26 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.84 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.21 and a 1 year high of $37.07.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.04). The business 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 previous year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 5th. This is an increase from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.60%. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 52.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PEBO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $37.50 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Peoples Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.00.

Insider Activity

In other Peoples Bancorp news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 25,686 shares in the company, valued at $775,717.20. The trade was a 3.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.41% of the company’s stock.

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.