Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Acquires 752 Shares of Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. $PB

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,976 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 752 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Prosperity Bancshares were worth $2,175,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 4,674.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,426,917 shares of the bank’s stock worth $100,227,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,033 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 14.6% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,232,995 shares of the bank’s stock worth $230,739,000 after purchasing an additional 412,283 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Prosperity Bancshares in the 1st quarter worth about $25,491,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 56.2% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 866,223 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,008,000 after buying an additional 311,698 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Prosperity Bancshares by 325.1% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 227,891 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,265,000 after buying an additional 174,287 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ned S. Holmes sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.57, for a total transaction of $32,785.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 88,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,797,371.55. This represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 13,200 shares of company stock valued at $872,099 in the last three months. 4.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PB. Hovde Group decreased their price target on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Stephens raised their price objective on Prosperity Bancshares from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Prosperity Bancshares in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $77.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Prosperity Bancshares in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Prosperity Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $78.00 price objective for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prosperity Bancshares currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.21.

Prosperity Bancshares Trading Up 2.1%

PB opened at $69.37 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.75. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.06 and a 12 month high of $85.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $65.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.18.

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The bank reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.45. The company had revenue of $314.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $317.94 million. Prosperity Bancshares had a return on equity of 7.06% and a net margin of 30.28%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

Prosperity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This is a positive change from Prosperity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Prosperity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.78%.

About Prosperity Bancshares

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; term loans and lines of credit; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery.