Teacher Retirement System of Texas Raises Position in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) by 63.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,530 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 14,944 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Bank OZK were worth $1,716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bank OZK by 7.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,106,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $305,526,000 after purchasing an additional 485,172 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Bank OZK by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,223,452 shares of the company’s stock worth $181,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,198 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank OZK by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,130,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,909,000 after acquiring an additional 188,575 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 6.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,022,979 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,989,000 after acquiring an additional 126,352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Bank OZK by 124.6% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,698,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,034,000 after purchasing an additional 942,309 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on OZK shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Bank OZK from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Bank OZK from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on shares of Bank OZK in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.38.

Bank OZK Price Performance

NASDAQ OZK opened at $44.97 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $48.31 and a 200 day moving average of $46.03. Bank OZK has a one year low of $37.43 and a one year high of $53.64. The company has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $412.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $407.19 million. Bank OZK had a net margin of 25.83% and a return on equity of 13.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank OZK will post 6.02 EPS for the current year.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 14th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is an increase from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.74%. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is presently 27.36%.

Bank OZK Company Profile

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.