BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $46.56 and last traded at $46.6650, with a volume of 1055744 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $46.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on BankUnited from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BankUnited in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Hovde Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of BankUnited in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of BankUnited in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of BankUnited from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.40.

BankUnited Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $40.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a PE ratio of 12.84 and a beta of 1.34.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.11. BankUnited had a net margin of 13.98% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The business had revenue of $275.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $280.33 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that BankUnited, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

BankUnited Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. BankUnited’s payout ratio is presently 34.93%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in BankUnited by 893.2% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,150,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,636,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035,002 shares during the period. HoldCo Asset Management LP bought a new stake in BankUnited in the third quarter valued at $35,752,000. Kodai Capital Management LP bought a new stake in BankUnited in the first quarter valued at $16,986,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of BankUnited during the first quarter valued at $16,338,000. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC grew its position in shares of BankUnited by 64.9% during the first quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 806,468 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,775,000 after acquiring an additional 317,532 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.70% of the company’s stock.

BankUnited Company Profile

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.