Jennison Associates LLC Buys 513,342 Shares of BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU)

Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) by 54.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,459,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 513,342 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 1.96% of BankUnited worth $47,324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in BankUnited by 24.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 124,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,042,000 after purchasing an additional 24,498 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in BankUnited by 23.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,539,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,939,000 after purchasing an additional 290,232 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC increased its holdings in BankUnited by 84.6% in the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 262,741 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,964,000 after purchasing an additional 120,441 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in BankUnited by 129.1% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 70,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 39,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. increased its holdings in BankUnited by 272.2% in the third quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 132,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 97,034 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on BKU shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on BankUnited from $34.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on BankUnited from $33.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on BankUnited from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wedbush decreased their target price on BankUnited from $34.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com cut BankUnited from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BankUnited currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.50.

BankUnited Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BKU opened at $27.60 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 11.90 and a beta of 1.36. BankUnited, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.83 and a 52 week high of $34.22.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $508.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $239.84 million. BankUnited had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 8.71%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.70 earnings per share. Analysts predict that BankUnited, Inc. will post 2.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BankUnited Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a $0.29 dividend. This is a positive change from BankUnited’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.20%. BankUnited’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BankUnited

In other news, insider Kevin A. Malcolm sold 2,285 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.18, for a total transaction of $62,106.30. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,750 shares in the company, valued at $319,365. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.19% of the company’s stock.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.