William Williams III Sells 6,590 Shares of Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) Stock

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:LOB) Director William Williams III sold 6,590 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.09, for a total value of $264,193.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,105,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,328,555.34. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Live Oak Bancshares Price Performance

NYSE:LOB traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $39.41. The stock had a trading volume of 173,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,448. The stock has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.88 and a beta of 1.86. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $29.36 and a fifty-two week high of $44.53. The business’s 50 day moving average is $41.58 and its 200 day moving average is $38.29.

Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $156.15 million during the quarter. Live Oak Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.77% and a net margin of 12.68%. Equities analysts expect that Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

Live Oak Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Live Oak Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.23%.

Institutional Trading of Live Oak Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LOB. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 28.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 18,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,146 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 20,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $549,000 after buying an additional 880 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Live Oak Bancshares by 655.6% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 687,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,339,000 after buying an additional 596,841 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Live Oak Bancshares by 15.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 264,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,041,000 after buying an additional 34,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Live Oak Bancshares during the first quarter valued at about $1,758,000. 63.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LOB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Live Oak Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Live Oak Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.40.

About Live Oak Bancshares

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and operates through its subsidiary Live Oak Banking Company. Founded in 2008, the company leverages a branchless, technology-driven platform to deliver specialty lending and deposit products across the United States. Live Oak Bancshares completed its initial public offering in February 2018 and trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol LOB.

The company’s primary focus is on originating and servicing commercial loans for small businesses in select industry verticals.