Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Short Interest Up 74.1% in February

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,350,000 shares, an increase of 74.1% from the February 13th total of 775,400 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 404,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veritex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Veritex by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,293,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,064,000 after purchasing an additional 18,185 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake 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 in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Veritex by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Veritex by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 631,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,618,000 after acquiring an additional 122,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Veritex by 4.6% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 48,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,115 shares during the period. 88.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Veritex Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of VBTX stock opened at $24.45 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.54 and a beta of 1.36. Veritex has a fifty-two week low of $18.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.62. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $26.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95.

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 return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 13.44%. Research analysts expect that Veritex will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.