Bailard Inc. Makes New $215,000 Investment in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Veritex by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Veritex by 63.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,095,000 after buying an additional 45,787 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Veritex by 14.7% in 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Veritex by 24.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,618,000 after acquiring an additional 122,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in Veritex by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 48,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 2,115 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VBTX opened at $25.06 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $26.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.08 and a 12 month 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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.02). Veritex had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. As a group, research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. Veritex’s payout ratio is 41.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VBTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James reduced their price target on Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Hovde Group upgraded Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Veritex from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Stephens cut their price objective on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.50.

Veritex 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.