Sierra Bancorp’s (BSRR) Buy (B-) Rating Reaffirmed at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings reaffirmed their buy (b-) rating on shares of Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) in a report issued on Tuesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Separately, Zacks Research cut Sierra Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.50.

Sierra Bancorp Trading Up 3.0%

Sierra Bancorp stock opened at $28.83 on Tuesday. Sierra Bancorp has a 52 week low of $22.42 and a 52 week high of $35.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $391.80 million, a P/E ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.62.

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. Sierra Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 20.09%.The business had revenue of $39.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.47 million. Analysts expect that Sierra Bancorp will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Sierra Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Sierra Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 34.60%.

Insider Activity at Sierra Bancorp

In other Sierra Bancorp news, EVP Michael Olague sold 9,193 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.41, for a total transaction of $261,173.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,809 shares in the company, valued at $250,263.69. The trade was a 51.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Julie G. Castle sold 976 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.25, for a total transaction of $28,548.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,044.25. This trade represents a 23.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Sierra Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $320,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in Sierra Bancorp by 157.3% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 24,869 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $738,000 after purchasing an additional 15,205 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its holdings in Sierra Bancorp by 57.7% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 829 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Sierra Bancorp by 13.4% in the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Sierra Bancorp by 1.9% in the second quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 129,720 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,472 shares during the period. 55.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Sierra Bancorp

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts.