Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Stake Raised by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 73,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Veritex worth $1,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Veritex during the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,139,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Veritex by 67.6% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 807,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,248,000 after purchasing an additional 325,569 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Veritex by 14.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,445,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,566,000 after purchasing an additional 299,562 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Veritex during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,908,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Veritex by 66.5% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 424,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,944,000 after acquiring an additional 169,448 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Veritex

In related news, Director John Sughrue sold 16,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.25, for a total transaction of $508,805.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 62,643 shares in the company, valued at $1,894,950.75. This trade represents a 21.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 12,777 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.69, for a total transaction of $353,795.13. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VBTX has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on Veritex from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James upgraded Veritex from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veritex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.40.

Veritex Price Performance

NASDAQ VBTX opened at $27.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.83 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.31. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.08 and a 1 year high of $31.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Veritex had a return on equity of 7.79% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $113.17 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.22 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Veritex’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.17 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.28%.

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.