Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC Takes $217,000 Position in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 7,102,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $316,281,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149,880 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 5.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,350,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,017,000 after purchasing an additional 220,214 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,945,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,162,000 after purchasing an additional 686,775 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,811,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,190,000 after purchasing an additional 314,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,786,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,537,000 after purchasing an additional 87,299 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial upgraded Bank OZK from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Bank OZK from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Bank OZK from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Stephens reduced their price target on Bank OZK from $59.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.88.

Bank OZK Trading Up 3.5%

Bank OZK stock opened at $49.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Bank OZK has a one year low of $35.71 and a one year high of $53.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.63 billion, a PE ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $48.65 and its 200 day moving average is $46.42.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $428.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $423.41 million. Bank OZK had a return on equity of 13.24% and a net margin of 25.83%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank OZK will post 6.02 EPS for the current year.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 11th. This is a positive change from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is 28.57%.

About Bank OZK

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits.