Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Increases Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 11.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 17,049 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,710 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Foundry Partners LLC raised its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 136,825 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,619,000 after purchasing an additional 20,120 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 220.5% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 76,995 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,599,000 after purchasing an additional 52,972 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,437 shares of the bank’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $226,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 10,896 shares of the bank’s stock worth $368,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on PEBO. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $36.00) on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $34.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Hovde Group assumed coverage on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 1st. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.40.

Peoples Bancorp Price Performance

PEBO opened at $29.76 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.36. The firm has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.76. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a twelve month low of $23.05 and a twelve month high of $34.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $112.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $115.00 million. Peoples Bancorp had a net margin of 20.17% and a return on equity of 12.93%. Equities research analysts expect that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.38%. This is a positive change from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.71%.

Peoples Bancorp Company Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.