Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Shares Purchased by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX - Free Report) by 19.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 173,323 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 27,685 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC owned approximately 0.32% of Veritex worth $4,707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Veritex by 0.5% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,219 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $52,067,000 after acquiring an additional 9,611 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Veritex by 67.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 807,294 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $21,248,000 after purchasing an additional 325,569 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Veritex by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 732,865 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $19,289,000 after acquiring an additional 12,286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Veritex by 13.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 680,766 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $17,918,000 after acquiring an additional 78,082 shares during the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VBTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Veritex from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Veritex from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Veritex from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veritex from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Hovde Group upgraded shares of 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. Three equities 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $31.50.

Veritex Stock Performance

Shares of Veritex stock traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $26.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 330,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 444,882. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $27.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.54. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a PE ratio of 13.63 and a beta of 1.38. Veritex Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.08 and a fifty-two week high of $31.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.54 EPS 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, analysts forecast that Veritex Holdings, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. Veritex's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.03%.

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.