Verition Fund Management LLC Raises Holdings in Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB)

Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in Independent Bank Corp. (NASDAQ:INDB - Free Report) by 1,697.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,435 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 125,068 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC owned about 0.31% of Independent Bank worth $7,831,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Independent Bank in the second quarter valued at $73,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Independent Bank during the 3rd quarter valued at about $222,000. Profund Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Independent Bank in the 2nd quarter valued at about $229,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Independent Bank in the 3rd quarter worth about $257,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in Independent Bank by 29.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 5,378 shares of the bank's stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.40% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

INDB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Independent Bank from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Independent Bank from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Independent Bank from a "market perform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $74.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.50.

Independent Bank Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of INDB traded up $0.28 during trading on Monday, reaching $72.67. 253,845 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 280,833. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Independent Bank Corp. has a twelve month low of $45.11 and a twelve month high of $77.23. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a PE ratio of 15.80 and a beta of 0.73.

Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $250.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $173.24 million. Independent Bank had a return on equity of 6.74% and a net margin of 20.26%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Independent Bank Corp. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Independent Bank Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Independent Bank's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.57%.

About Independent Bank

Independent Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Rockland Trust Company that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in the United States. The company provides interest checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as demand deposits and time certificates of deposit.