Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Has $333,000 Position in BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) by 40.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,813 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in BankUnited were worth $333,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BKU. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,063 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $193,000 after acquiring an additional 426 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 12,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 103,208 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,595 shares during the period. Wolverine Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 11,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $403,000 after acquiring an additional 2,267 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 118.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,208 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,280 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKU has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on BankUnited from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of BankUnited in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded BankUnited from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on BankUnited from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Compass Point increased their target price on BankUnited from $42.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.60.

Insider Activity at BankUnited

In other news, COO Thomas M. Cornish sold 10,778 shares of BankUnited stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.11, for a total value of $421,527.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,911,000. This trade represents a 9.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jay D. Richards sold 2,500 shares of BankUnited stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.18, for a total value of $102,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,428,410.66. This trade represents a 6.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.19% of the company’s stock.

BankUnited Trading Up 0.6 %

BKU stock opened at $40.07 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.46. BankUnited, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.34 and a fifty-two week high of $44.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.07. BankUnited had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 9.06%. The firm had revenue of $515.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.65 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. Analysts expect that BankUnited, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BankUnited Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. BankUnited’s dividend payout ratio is 47.54%.

BankUnited Profile

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.