Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 950,300 shares, a decline of 31.6% from the July 15th total of 1,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 371,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veritex

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VBTX. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Veritex in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veritex in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Veritex during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Veritex during the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Veritex by 1,302.9% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,339 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 3,101 shares during the last quarter. 88.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Veritex Price Performance

VBTX stock traded up $0.87 during trading on Thursday, hitting $22.83. The stock had a trading volume of 335,272 shares, compared to its average volume of 410,539. Veritex has a twelve month low of $15.93 and a twelve month high of $25.84. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $21.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.38 and a beta of 1.38.

Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.01). Veritex had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 11.52%. The firm had revenue of $106.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Veritex will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.51%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VBTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Veritex from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com raised Veritex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Stephens raised their price objective on Veritex from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Veritex from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veritex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.50.

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.