Royce & Associates LP Acquires New Holdings in Beacon Financial Corporation $BBT

Royce & Associates LP acquired a new stake in Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 316,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,355,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $253,245,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,274,000. Systematic Financial Management LP bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,078,000. UBS Group AG bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $18,815,000. Finally, Strategic Value Bank Partners LLC bought a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $16,448,000. Institutional investors own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Beacon Financial Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:BBT opened at $29.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.56. Beacon Financial Corporation has a 12 month low of $22.81 and a 12 month high of $32.83.

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $214.72 million during the quarter. Beacon Financial had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 6.97%. Analysts expect that Beacon Financial Corporation will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Beacon Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a $0.3225 dividend. This represents a $1.29 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Beacon Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.61%.

Beacon Financial announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BBT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Hovde Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 price target (down from $33.00) on shares of Beacon Financial in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Beacon Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Beacon Financial from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Beacon Financial from $36.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Beacon Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.75.

About Beacon Financial

Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp.