United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.05 EPS

United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $239.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $243.01 million. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 8.36% and a net margin of 13.04%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.5% on a year-over-year basis.

United Community Banks Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of UCB stock opened at $33.35 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.66 and a beta of 0.93. United Community Banks has a 12 month low of $24.04 and a 12 month high of $35.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.64.

United Community Banks Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. United Community Banks’s payout ratio is currently 62.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Jefferson L. Harralson sold 10,275 shares of United Community Banks stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total transaction of $285,234.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 43,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,221,190.16. The trade was a 18.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on UCB. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on United Community Banks from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James upgraded shares of United Community Banks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on United Community Banks from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc operates as the financial holding company for United Community Bank that provides financial products and services to commercial, retail, government, education, energy, health care, and real estate sectors. It accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts.