Natixis Takes $868,000 Position in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Natixis bought a new stake in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 19,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $868,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Bank OZK in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Bank OZK during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in Bank OZK by 303.9% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 929 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 699 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its position in Bank OZK by 601.0% during the 4th quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 1,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bank OZK during the 4th quarter worth approximately $73,000. 86.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on OZK. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $41.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Bank OZK from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Citigroup lowered shares of Bank OZK from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $37.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Bank OZK from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bank OZK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.29.

Bank OZK Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Bank OZK stock traded up $0.38 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $46.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 54,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,318,804. Bank OZK has a one year low of $34.76 and a one year high of $52.36. The company has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.71 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52. Bank OZK had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 14.50%. The company had revenue of $416.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $414.39 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.47 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Bank OZK will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This is an increase from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 12th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Bank OZK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.80%.

About Bank OZK

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.