Northern Trust Corp Sells 24,275 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. $VBTX

Northern Trust Corp cut its holdings in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 4.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 559,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,275 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.03% of Veritex worth $13,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,215,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Veritex by 220.5% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 966,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,247,000 after purchasing an additional 664,885 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,644,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Veritex by 57.8% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,239,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,675,000 after acquiring an additional 454,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,975,000. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VBTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Veritex from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. William Blair raised shares of Veritex to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of Veritex in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Veritex in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.25.

Insider Activity at Veritex

In other news, CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 125,762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.26, for a total transaction of $4,057,082.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 294,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,500,828.08. This trade represents a 29.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cara Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.53, for a total transaction of $325,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $565,111.16. This represents a 36.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 320,699 shares of company stock worth $10,361,627. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of VBTX opened at $33.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.37 and a twelve month high of $34.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $31.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.54. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.19 and a beta of 1.08.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. Veritex had a net margin of 14.83% and a return on equity of 7.55%. The firm had revenue of $109.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.90%.

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.