Peoples Financial Services CORP. Decreases Stake in NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTB)

Peoples Financial Services CORP. lowered its position in NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTB) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,000 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 4,000 shares during the period. Peoples Financial Services CORP.’s holdings in NBT Bancorp were worth $716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of NBT Bancorp by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,297,333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $88,675,000 after acquiring an additional 46,498 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NBT Bancorp by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,118,410 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,477,000 after acquiring an additional 10,628 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NBT Bancorp by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 828,440 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,978,000 after acquiring an additional 107,404 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NBT Bancorp by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 585,636 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,903,000 after acquiring an additional 7,294 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of NBT Bancorp by 76.3% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 378,898 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,759,000 after purchasing an additional 163,952 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded NBT Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on NBT Bancorp from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, DA Davidson assumed coverage on NBT Bancorp in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.80.

Insider Transactions at NBT Bancorp

In other news, Director John H. Watt, Jr. sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.45, for a total transaction of $909,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 143,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,503,940.45. The trade was a 12.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Amy Wiles sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.31, for a total value of $25,655.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,406,355.79. This represents a 1.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 81,694 shares of company stock valued at $4,048,185. 3.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NBT Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NBTB opened at $47.04 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $49.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.39. NBT Bancorp Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.79 and a 1-year high of $52.44.

NBT Bancorp (NASDAQ:NBTB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The bank reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.70 million. NBT Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.36% and a net margin of 17.37%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that NBT Bancorp Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

NBT Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. NBT Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.89%.

About NBT Bancorp

NBT Bancorp Inc, a financial holding company, provides commercial banking, retail banking, and wealth management services. Its deposit products include demand deposit, savings, negotiable order of withdrawal, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts. The company's loan portfolio comprises indirect and direct consumer, home equity, mortgages, business banking loans, and commercial loans; commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, agricultural, and commercial construction loans; and residential real estate loans.