Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys New Position in Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 63,600 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $794,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.05% of Northwest Bancshares as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NWBI. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 4.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,917,212 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $50,303,000 after acquiring an additional 230,058 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 4.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,503,007 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $35,836,000 after acquiring an additional 138,879 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares in the third quarter worth $745,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares in the third quarter worth $574,000. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 278.7% in the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 56,677 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 41,710 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.32% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Bancshares Trading Down 0.6 %

Northwest Bancshares stock opened at $10.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Northwest Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $9.80 and a one year high of $13.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 10.50 and a beta of 0.60. The business’s fifty day moving average is $11.25 and its 200 day moving average is $11.50.

Northwest Bancshares (NASDAQ:NWBI) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23. Northwest Bancshares had a return on equity of 8.77% and a net margin of 17.84%. The company had revenue of $188.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $132.80 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Northwest Bancshares, Inc. will post 0.92 EPS for the current year.

Northwest Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 1st. Northwest Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 77.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NWBI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $12.00 price objective (down from $13.00) on shares of Northwest Bancshares in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Northwest Bancshares from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday.

About Northwest Bancshares

Northwest Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Northwest Bank, a state-chartered savings bank that provides personal and business banking solutions. The company accepts various deposits, including checking, savings, money market deposit, term certificate, and individual retirement accounts.