Beacon Financial Corporation $BBT Shares Sold by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC cut its position in shares of Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) by 28.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 570,440 shares of the company’s stock after selling 226,718 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Beacon Financial were worth $17,113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $253,245,000. State Street Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $133,275,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $128,643,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $128,568,000. Finally, Azora Capital LP purchased a new position in Beacon Financial in the fourth quarter worth approximately $82,619,000. 83.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on BBT. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Beacon Financial in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Raymond James Financial cut Beacon Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Hovde Group reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (down from $33.00) on shares of Beacon Financial in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Beacon Financial from $36.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Beacon Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.00.

Beacon Financial Stock Up 2.4%

Beacon Financial stock opened at $30.56 on Friday. Beacon Financial Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.81 and a fifty-two week high of $32.83. 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 50 day moving average price of $29.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.75. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a PE ratio of 23.15 and a beta of 0.55.

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77. Beacon Financial had a return on equity of 9.21% and a net margin of 8.96%.The company had revenue of $219.19 million for the quarter. Research analysts expect that Beacon Financial Corporation will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Beacon Financial declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 29th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Beacon Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.3225 dividend. This represents a $1.29 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Beacon Financial’s payout ratio is currently 106.61%.

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.