Empowered Funds LLC Increases Stock Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 143,286 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 6,938 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $4,541,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Peoples Bancorp by 42.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,252 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. CWM LLC increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 503.9% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,860 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 1,552 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 322.2% during the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 3,800 shares of the bank’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 223.3% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 3,964 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $119,000 after buying an additional 2,738 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on PEBO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $37.50 price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Peoples Bancorp

In related news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.02, for a total value of $31,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $858,819.72. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David F. Dierker sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.36, for a total transaction of $70,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,214 shares in the company, valued at $42,927.04. This represents a 62.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,000 shares of company stock valued at $169,390 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.46% of the company’s stock.

Peoples Bancorp Price Performance

PEBO opened at $33.41 on Wednesday. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.74 and a twelve month high of $37.07. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.09 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.98.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.79%. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.34%.

Peoples Bancorp Company Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.