Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:GBCI) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:GBCI) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $55.17.

Several research firms have weighed in on GBCI. Weiss Ratings raised Glacier Bancorp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $58.00 price objective on shares of Glacier Bancorp in a report on Monday, July 27th.

Glacier Bancorp Price Performance

NYSE:GBCI opened at $44.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.87. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.16 and a beta of 0.72. Glacier Bancorp has a 52-week low of $39.90 and a 52-week high of $54.58.

Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.76. Glacier Bancorp had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 19.72%.The business had revenue of $320.94 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Glacier Bancorp will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Glacier Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 6th. This is a positive change from Glacier Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Glacier Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.10%.

Insider Transactions at Glacier Bancorp

In other news, Chairman Craig Langel purchased 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $47.04 per share, for a total transaction of $105,840.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chairman directly owned 98,684 shares in the company, valued at $4,642,095.36. The trade was a 2.33% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GBCI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Glacier Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth about $913,766,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Glacier Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $67,582,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Glacier Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $62,719,000. Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Glacier Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $59,048,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Glacier Bancorp during the second quarter worth approximately $55,775,000. Institutional investors own 80.17% of the company’s stock.

Glacier Bancorp Company Profile

Glacier Bancorp, Inc is a regional bank holding company headquartered in Kalispell, Montana. Through its banking subsidiaries and community banking divisions, the company provides financial services to individuals, families, businesses and organizations, with a focus on relationship-based community banking.

Its products and services include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate lending, consumer loans, commercial and agricultural loans, online and mobile banking, treasury management and other business banking services.