American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Banc of California, Inc. (NYSE:BANC)

American Century Companies Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Banc of California, Inc. (NYSE:BANC) by 28.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,170,508 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,280,226 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Banc of California were worth $49,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BANC. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Banc of California by 1,446.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 46,754,426 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $722,823,000 after buying an additional 43,730,207 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Banc of California by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,556,614 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,525,000 after acquiring an additional 62,269 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its position in shares of Banc of California by 93.2% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 2,476,387 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $36,477,000 after acquiring an additional 1,194,839 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Banc of California by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,281,410 shares of the bank’s stock worth $35,270,000 after purchasing an additional 221,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Banc of California by 589.8% in the 3rd quarter. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 1,732,894 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,692 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Banc of California from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Banc of California in a research note on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price objective for the company. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Banc of California from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Banc of California from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Banc of California from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Banc of California currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.18.

Banc of California Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BANC opened at $14.65 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $15.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.41. Banc of California, Inc. has a 52-week low of $11.88 and a 52-week high of $18.08. The company has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.15 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90.

Banc of California (NYSE:BANC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.05. Banc of California had a return on equity of 6.20% and a net margin of 7.06%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Banc of California, Inc. will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Banc of California Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Banc of California’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.43%.

Banc of California Profile

Banc of California, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Banc of California that provides various banking products and services in California. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, savings, money market, demand, and time deposits; certificates of deposit; retirement accounts; and safe deposit boxes.