Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR) Short Interest Update

Banner Co. (NASDAQ:BANR) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 814,200 shares, an increase of 10.4% from the August 15th total of 737,800 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 183,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Banner by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 17,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its holdings in Banner by 3.9% during the first quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 9,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in Banner by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 18,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $964,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its holdings in Banner by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 30,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,443,000 after buying an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Banner by 7.4% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 6,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $331,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BANR. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Banner from $51.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Banner from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 8th. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded Banner from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $53.00 price target on shares of Banner in a report on Thursday, July 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Banner Stock Down 0.2 %

BANR traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $58.43. 41,029 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 183,981. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Banner has a one year low of $39.31 and a one year high of $61.77. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.00. The company has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a PE ratio of 12.12 and a beta of 1.05.

Banner (NASDAQ:BANR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.03. Banner had a net margin of 20.93% and a return on equity of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $149.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $149.66 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Banner will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banner Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 6th. Banner’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.92%.

Banner Company Profile

Banner Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Banner Bank that engages in the provision of commercial banking and financial products and services to individuals, businesses, and public sector entities in the United States. It accepts various deposit instruments, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, regular savings accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as treasury management services and retirement savings plans.