Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Buys Shares of 5,351 Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $463,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WAL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 20.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,722,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $233,832,000 after buying an additional 636,577 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation by 0.7% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,813,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $176,764,000 after buying an additional 20,876 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation by 93.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,793,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $241,568,000 after buying an additional 1,347,921 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,896,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $164,019,000 after acquiring an additional 74,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 10.4% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,802,505 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $155,899,000 after purchasing an additional 169,244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WAL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada set a $99.00 price target on Western Alliance Bancorporation and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wedbush lifted their target price on Western Alliance Bancorporation from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $83.00 to $101.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Alliance Bancorporation presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.40.

Western Alliance Bancorporation Price Performance

Shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation stock opened at $91.66 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $88.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.09 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.45. Western Alliance Bancorporation has a 12 month low of $53.75 and a 12 month high of $98.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $833.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $811.40 million. Western Alliance Bancorporation had a return on equity of 13.16% and a net margin of 14.66%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Alliance Bancorporation will post 7.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Alliance Bancorporation Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from Western Alliance Bancorporation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Western Alliance Bancorporation’s payout ratio is presently 23.46%.

About Western Alliance Bancorporation

Western Alliance Bancorporation operates as the bank holding company for Western Alliance Bank that provides various banking products and related services primarily in Arizona, California, and Nevada. It operates through Commercial and Consumer Related segments. The company offers deposit products, including checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as fixed-rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposit accounts; demand deposits; and treasury management and residential mortgage products and services.