Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOB)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. trimmed its holdings in Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOB) by 23.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,725 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 20,635 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. owned approximately 0.15% of Live Oak Bancshares worth $2,639,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LOB. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 68.4% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 2,026 shares of the bank’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Live Oak Bancshares by 432.0% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 66,130 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,319,000 after purchasing an additional 53,700 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Live Oak Bancshares by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,402,516 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,169,000 after buying an additional 48,018 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in Live Oak Bancshares by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 10,086 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 1,424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares during the second quarter valued at about $166,000. Institutional investors own 63.95% of the company’s stock.

Live Oak Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of Live Oak Bancshares stock opened at $37.31 on Tuesday. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.03 and a 1 year high of $50.57. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a PE ratio of 23.47 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.97.

Live Oak Bancshares (NASDAQ:LOB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.25). The company had revenue of $241.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $126.63 million. Live Oak Bancshares had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 7.99%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Live Oak Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Live Oak Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.55%.

Insider Activity at Live Oak Bancshares

In related news, Director William Henderson Cameron acquired 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $39.76 per share, for a total transaction of $39,760.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 202,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,040,147.92. This represents a 0.50 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO John W. Sutherland sold 12,588 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total value of $616,812.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 14,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $686,735. This represents a 47.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 23.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on LOB shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $57.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Live Oak Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.50.

Live Oak Bancshares Profile

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Live Oak Banking Company that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It operates through two segments, Banking and Fintech. The company accepts various deposit products, including noninterest-bearing demand, as well as interest-bearing checking, money market, savings, and time deposits.