Short Interest in Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Drops By 19.3%

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, a drop of 19.3% from the January 15th total of 1,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 412,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on VBTX shares. Raymond James cut their price objective on Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Hovde Group upgraded Veritex from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.50 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Veritex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Veritex from $34.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their target price on Veritex from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Veritex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of VBTX opened at $26.58 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a PE ratio of 13.63 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Veritex has a one year low of $18.08 and a one year high of $31.62. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $27.13 and a 200-day moving average of $26.54.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.02). Veritex had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.59%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Veritex’s payout ratio is currently 41.03%.

Institutional Trading of Veritex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veritex by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,064,000 after acquiring an additional 18,185 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Veritex by 63.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,095,000 after acquiring an additional 45,787 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veritex by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Veritex by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,618,000 after purchasing an additional 122,809 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Veritex by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 48,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after buying an additional 2,115 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.31% of the company’s stock.

About Veritex

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.