BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) Upgraded at Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) to a moderate buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BankUnited in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Hovde Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of BankUnited in a report on Monday, December 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of BankUnited from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, December 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of BankUnited in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on BankUnited from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.00.

BankUnited Stock Performance

NYSE BKU opened at $47.07 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26 and a beta of 1.30. BankUnited has a twelve month low of $28.21 and a twelve month high of $47.16.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $275.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $280.33 million. BankUnited had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 13.98%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.81 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that BankUnited will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

BankUnited Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. BankUnited’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.93%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BankUnited

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKU. HoldCo Asset Management LP purchased a new position in BankUnited in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,752,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in BankUnited by 23.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,070,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $117,183,000 after acquiring an additional 576,843 shares in the last quarter. Jain Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BankUnited during the third quarter worth about $11,224,000. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC increased its position in shares of BankUnited by 20.9% during the third quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 1,535,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $58,586,000 after purchasing an additional 265,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BankUnited in the 1st quarter valued at about $9,100,000. 99.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc is a bank holding company based in Miami Lakes, Florida, operating through its subsidiary BankUnited, National Association. The company provides a broad range of commercial banking products and services, including deposit accounts, commercial lending and treasury management. It serves middle-market and small-business clients, offering tailored financing solutions across a variety of industry sectors.

The bank’s lending portfolio includes commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate loans and construction financing, as well as residential mortgage lending.