Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 20,300 Stellarone Corp $STEL

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 20,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $743,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in Stellarone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $62,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new stake in Stellarone in the 3rd quarter worth $83,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Stellarone during the third quarter worth about $112,000. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in Stellarone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $220,000. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Stellarone during the second quarter valued at approximately $202,000. 54.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stellarone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Price Performance

Stellarone stock remained flat at $39.32 during midday trading on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.70. Stellarone Corp has a 52-week low of $27.88 and a 52-week high of $40.21. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $37.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.37.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. Stellarone had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 17.56%.The business had revenue of $111.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.27%.

Stellarone Profile

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.