Vestcor Inc Acquires Shares of 7,742 Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Vestcor Inc purchased a new stake in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 7,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Bank OZK by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,223,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,198 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Bank OZK by 124.6% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,698,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,034,000 after purchasing an additional 942,309 shares in the last quarter. Senvest Management LLC acquired a new stake in Bank OZK during the third quarter worth about $22,306,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Bank OZK by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,106,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $305,526,000 after buying an additional 485,172 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Bank OZK in the 4th quarter valued at about $14,077,000. 86.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on OZK shares. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Bank OZK in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 price target on the stock. Stephens lifted their price target on Bank OZK from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Bank OZK from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Bank OZK from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank OZK has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.38.

Bank OZK Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of OZK stock opened at $44.26 on Tuesday. Bank OZK has a twelve month low of $37.43 and a twelve month high of $53.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.21 and a beta of 1.23.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.12. Bank OZK had a return on equity of 13.90% and a net margin of 25.83%. The company had revenue of $412.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $407.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bank OZK will post 6.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 14th were issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, January 14th. This is a positive change from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is 27.36%.

Bank OZK Company Profile

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits.