Hancock Whitney Corp Cuts Holdings in Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Hancock Whitney Corp lessened its position in shares of Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,968 shares of the company’s stock after selling 608 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Bank OZK were worth $983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of OZK. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Bank OZK during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 6,247 shares of the company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Bank OZK in the fourth quarter worth about $56,293,000. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Bank OZK in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,818,000. Finally, Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of Bank OZK by 70.9% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 21,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 9,065 shares in the last quarter. 86.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Bank OZK from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Bank OZK from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank OZK from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup lowered shares of Bank OZK from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $57.00 to $37.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Bank OZK from $49.00 to $48.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank OZK currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.57.

Bank OZK Stock Performance

Shares of Bank OZK stock opened at $42.76 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. Bank OZK has a 1 year low of $34.76 and a 1 year high of $52.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.16. The firm has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a PE ratio of 7.16 and a beta of 1.17.

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.52. Bank OZK had a return on equity of 14.50% and a net margin of 27.04%. The firm had revenue of $416.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $414.39 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.47 earnings per share. Bank OZK’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Bank OZK will post 6.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank OZK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 12th. This is an increase from Bank OZK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Bank OZK’s payout ratio is currently 26.80%.

Bank OZK Profile

Bank OZK provides various retail and commercial banking services for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers deposit services, including non-interest bearing checking, interest bearing transaction, business sweep, savings, money market, individual retirement, and other accounts, as well as time and reciprocal deposits.