Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Shares Sold by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 34.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,857 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,959 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Veritex were worth $566,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Veritex by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Veritex by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 73,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,920,000 after acquiring an additional 701 shares in the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in Veritex in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. KBC Group NV grew its position in Veritex by 73.5% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Veritex in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. 88.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VBTX has been the subject of several research reports. Stephens dropped their target price on Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Veritex in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James dropped their target price on Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Hovde Group raised Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of VBTX opened at $24.52 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.34 billion, a PE ratio of 12.57 and a beta of 1.36. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.74 and a 1 year high of $31.62.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.02). Veritex had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. On average, analysts predict that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Veritex’s payout ratio is 41.03%.

Veritex Company Profile

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.