William Blair Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Stellarone Corp $STEL

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its position in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) by 55.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 514,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 640,315 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Stellarone were worth $15,923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Stellarone by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,275,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $101,354,000 after acquiring an additional 18,749 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Stellarone by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,298,419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,733,000 after purchasing an additional 47,992 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP grew its position in Stellarone by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,829,937 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $55,520,000 after purchasing an additional 289,937 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Stellarone by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,237,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,556,000 after purchasing an additional 318,011 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its position in Stellarone by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 405,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,310,000 after purchasing an additional 12,061 shares during the period. 54.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Stellarone Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of STEL stock opened at $37.42 on Tuesday. Stellarone Corp has a 1 year low of $26.08 and a 1 year high of $40.21. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $1.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 0.72.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. Stellarone had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 6.54%. The firm had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Stellarone Corp will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Stellarone’s payout ratio is presently 29.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on STEL shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Stellarone from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Stellarone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

About Stellarone

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers.