Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 85,923 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,804 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $2,723,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 172.8% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,094 shares of the bank’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,252 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 223.3% during the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 3,964 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $119,000 after acquiring an additional 2,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $241,000. 60.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEBO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $37.50 price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.20, for a total value of $30,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 25,686 shares in the company, valued at $775,717.20. This trade represents a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 3,000 shares of company stock worth $94,050 in the last ninety days. 3.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Peoples Bancorp stock opened at $29.82 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a PE ratio of 9.01 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.98. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a one year low of $27.10 and a one year high of $37.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 18.90% and a return on equity of 11.07%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.04 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.37%. Peoples Bancorp’s payout ratio is 48.34%.

Peoples Bancorp Company Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.