Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, an increase of 27.3% from the February 13th total of 1,210,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 513,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ned S. Holmes sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.04, for a total value of $38,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 110,315 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,388,352.60. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 5,500 shares of company stock valued at $421,905 in the last ninety days. 4.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PB. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth $68,986,000. North Reef Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth $29,211,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares in the third quarter worth $16,478,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 937,108 shares of the bank’s stock worth $70,611,000 after purchasing an additional 190,449 shares during the period. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Prosperity Bancshares by 462.3% in the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 169,778 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,793,000 after buying an additional 139,585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Prosperity Bancshares Price Performance

Prosperity Bancshares stock traded down $0.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $70.84. 660,725 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 522,559. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.27. Prosperity Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $57.16 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. The stock has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.94.

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The bank reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.04. Prosperity Bancshares had a return on equity of 6.64% and a net margin of 26.79%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Prosperity Bancshares will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Prosperity Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Prosperity Bancshares’s payout ratio is 45.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Prosperity Bancshares from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America raised Prosperity Bancshares from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stephens upped their price target on Prosperity Bancshares from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com raised Prosperity Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Prosperity Bancshares from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Prosperity Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.50.

About Prosperity Bancshares

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; term loans and lines of credit; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery.