Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $80.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on PB. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $77.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $77.00 price objective on shares of Prosperity Bancshares in a report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Prosperity Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, DA Davidson downgraded shares of Prosperity Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prosperity Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $81.38.

Prosperity Bancshares Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:PB opened at $74.73 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.87, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.11. Prosperity Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $57.16 and a fifty-two week high of $86.75.

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $459.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $299.83 million. Prosperity Bancshares had a net margin of 25.39% and a return on equity of 6.46%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Prosperity Bancshares will post 5.05 EPS for the current year.

Prosperity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Prosperity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Prosperity Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 49.26%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman H E. Timanus, Jr. sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.50, for a total transaction of $346,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 229,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,890,934.50. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ned S. Holmes sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.44, for a total transaction of $40,720.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 113,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,269,093.60. This trade represents a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,100 shares of company stock valued at $1,080,364 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prosperity Bancshares

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PB. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 14.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,287,615 shares of the bank’s stock worth $262,141,000 after acquiring an additional 532,241 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Prosperity Bancshares in the third quarter worth $16,478,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 16.0% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 811,772 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,632,000 after acquiring an additional 112,101 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 418.0% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 111,548 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,039,000 after acquiring an additional 90,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 11.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 673,198 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,883,000 after acquiring an additional 71,694 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

About Prosperity Bancshares

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; term loans and lines of credit; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery.