Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday,Zacks reports.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on LOB. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Live Oak Bancshares from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Live Oak Bancshares from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Live Oak Bancshares from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Live Oak Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.40.

Live Oak Bancshares Stock Performance

NYSE LOB opened at $38.62 on Monday. Live Oak Bancshares has a twelve month low of $29.36 and a twelve month high of $44.53. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 13.60 and a beta of 1.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.31.

Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE:LOB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $156.15 million for the quarter. Live Oak Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.77% and a net margin of 12.68%. Research analysts forecast that Live Oak Bancshares will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Live Oak Bancshares Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William L. Williams III sold 8,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.61, for a total value of $349,524.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,122,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,708,306.86. This represents a 0.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Mark Michael Moroz sold 6,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.08, for a total value of $256,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,110 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $509,588.80. The trade was a 33.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 36,454 shares of company stock worth $1,526,341 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 22.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Live Oak Bancshares

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Live Oak Bancshares during the second quarter worth $143,588,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 4,962.5% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,668,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635,680 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $55,546,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth about $43,261,000. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Live Oak Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth about $22,278,000. 63.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Live Oak Bancshares Company Profile

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.