Alliancebernstein L.P. Sells 49,000 Shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lessened its stake in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 20.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 194,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 49,000 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Veritex were worth $5,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of VBTX. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in Veritex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Veritex in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Veritex by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Veritex by 73.5% during 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 during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Veritex by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $146,000 after buying an additional 481 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens reduced their price objective on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of 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. Raymond James downgraded shares of Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Veritex in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Veritex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.90.

Veritex Price Performance

VBTX stock opened at $20.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $24.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.64. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.74 and a 12 month high of $31.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a PE ratio of 10.65 and a beta of 1.11.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.