Empowered Funds LLC Raises Stock Position in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX)

Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 5.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 145,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,370 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Veritex were worth $3,833,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Veritex by 0.5% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,067,000 after purchasing an additional 9,611 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Veritex during the 3rd quarter valued at about $220,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Veritex by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 16,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $446,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405 shares in the last quarter. F M Investments LLC lifted its position in Veritex by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. F M Investments LLC now owns 504,195 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,271,000 after acquiring an additional 101,973 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sippican Capital Advisors grew its position in Veritex by 0.4% in the third quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 99,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,612,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on VBTX. Raymond James raised shares of Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Veritex from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens lifted their target price on Veritex from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.40.

Insider Activity at Veritex

In related news, CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 12,777 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.69, for a total transaction of $353,795.13. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 224,132 shares in the company, valued at $6,206,215.08. This represents a 5.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John Sughrue sold 16,820 shares of Veritex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.25, for a total value of $508,805.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 62,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,894,950.75. The trade was a 21.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 4.60% of the company’s stock.

Veritex Price Performance

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $29.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $26.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.63. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.69 and a beta of 1.36. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.08 and a 1-year high of $30.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $113.17 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $110.22 million. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.79% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.28%.

Veritex Company 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.