Wedbush Securities Inc. Takes Position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Wedbush Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 11,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $306,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Veritex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $847,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of Veritex by 37.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 34,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $944,000 after buying an additional 9,559 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP raised its position in shares of Veritex by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 161,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,397,000 after buying an additional 33,714 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Veritex by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 89,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 16,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Veritex by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after buying an additional 481 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James lowered shares of Veritex from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Veritex in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stephens dropped 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 report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veritex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.90.

Veritex Stock Up 6.6 %

VBTX stock opened at $22.64 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a PE ratio of 11.61 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.71. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.74 and a fifty-two week high of $31.62.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 EPS 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.53%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.03%.

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.