Legal & General Group Plc Makes New Investment in Beacon Financial Corporation $BBT

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 203,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,377,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.24% of Beacon Financial at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Value Bank Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth $16,448,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth $1,867,000. UBS Group AG purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth $18,815,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth $3,048,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth $253,245,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Beacon Financial from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Beacon Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Hovde Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Beacon Financial in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut Beacon Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.75.

Beacon Financial Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of BBT stock opened at $28.87 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of 23.86 and a beta of 0.56. Beacon Financial Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.81 and a fifty-two week high of $32.83.

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

Beacon Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.3225 per share. This represents a $1.29 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Beacon Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.61%.

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

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.