Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Takes Position in Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,253 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SNV. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Synovus Financial in the second quarter valued at $374,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Synovus Financial by 14.9% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,145,174 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,025,000 after purchasing an additional 148,842 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Synovus Financial by 30.0% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 77,980 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,134,000 after purchasing an additional 18,011 shares in the last quarter. Private Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Synovus Financial by 6.2% in the first quarter. Private Capital Management LLC now owns 365,557 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,644,000 after purchasing an additional 21,456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Synovus Financial by 102.9% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 12,992 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,588 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Synovus Financial from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Raymond James upgraded Synovus Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $49.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Synovus Financial from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on Synovus Financial from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Synovus Financial in a report on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $64.00 price objective for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Synovus Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.00.

Synovus Financial Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:SNV opened at $55.18 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $7.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $52.00 and its 200-day moving average is $45.59. Synovus Financial Corp. has a 52-week low of $33.44 and a 52-week high of $59.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Synovus Financial (NYSE:SNV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The bank reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $564.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.64 million. Synovus Financial had a return on equity of 13.43% and a net margin of 10.82%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Synovus Financial Corp. will post 4.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Synovus Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 19th will be given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 19th. Synovus Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.78%.

About Synovus Financial

Synovus Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Synovus Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. It operates through four segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Consumer Banking, and Financial Management Services. The company's commercial banking services include treasury and asset management, capital market, and institutional trust services, as well as commercial, financial, and real estate lending services.