Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 44,567 Shares of Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,780,006 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,567 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.27% of Prosperity Bancshares worth $736,923,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Prosperity Bancshares by 487.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 368.5% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 520 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 102.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 592 shares of the bank’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Prosperity Bancshares by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 844 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in Prosperity Bancshares by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 981 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stephens upped their target price on shares of Prosperity Bancshares from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Prosperity Bancshares from $102.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on Prosperity Bancshares from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America raised Prosperity Bancshares from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on Prosperity Bancshares from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.50.

Prosperity Bancshares Trading Down 1.4 %

PB opened at $70.49 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $75.83 and its 200 day moving average is $76.17. The company has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.93, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.94. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $57.16 and a 12-month high of $86.76.

Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The bank reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.04. Prosperity Bancshares had a net margin of 26.79% and a return on equity of 6.64%. As a group, analysts predict that Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Prosperity Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Prosperity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.85%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ned S. Holmes sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.12, for a total value of $37,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 109,315 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,102,427.80. This represents a 0.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 5,500 shares of company stock valued at $416,135 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

About Prosperity Bancshares

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; term loans and lines of credit; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery.