Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires New Shares in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB acquired a new stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 481 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 751 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 117.0% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 824 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 29,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 17,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $462,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veritex Price Performance

Veritex stock opened at $24.30 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.46 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $23.68 and its 200 day moving average is $25.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $19.27 and a one year high of $31.62.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. The firm had revenue of $109.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 8th. This is a positive change from Veritex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.62%. Veritex’s payout ratio is 43.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Veritex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Veritex from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.25.

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.