Unity Bancorp (NASDAQ:UNTY) Price Target Raised to $51.00

Unity Bancorp (NASDAQ:UNTY) had its price objective boosted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $43.00 to $51.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $44.00 price objective (up from $40.00) on shares of Unity Bancorp in a research report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com lowered Unity Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

Unity Bancorp Price Performance

UNTY opened at $45.62 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16. Unity Bancorp has a 1 year low of $25.33 and a 1 year high of $48.22. The firm has a market cap of $455.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.73 and a beta of 1.03.

Unity Bancorp (NASDAQ:UNTY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $27.66 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.40 million. Unity Bancorp had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 24.46%. As a group, analysts predict that Unity Bancorp will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Unity Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Unity Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 13.37%.

Insider Activity

In other Unity Bancorp news, Director Vincent Geraci sold 1,043 shares of Unity Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.98, for a total transaction of $46,914.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $371,085. The trade was a 11.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark S. Brody sold 2,800 shares of Unity Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.33, for a total value of $132,524.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 70,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,313,194.66. The trade was a 3.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,643 shares of company stock worth $304,710 in the last quarter. 28.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Unity Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $623,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Unity Bancorp by 2.4% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $617,000 after buying an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Unity Bancorp by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 35,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,037,000 after buying an additional 2,393 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Unity Bancorp by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 414,036 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,427,000 after buying an additional 3,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Unity Bancorp by 2,329.8% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,328 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.31% of the company’s stock.

About Unity Bancorp

Unity Bancorp, Inc operates as a bank holding company for Unity Bank that provides range of commercial and retail banking services to individuals, small and medium sized businesses, and professional communities. It offers personal and business checking accounts, time deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, and retirement accounts, as well as noninterest and interest-bearing demand deposits.