United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) Sets New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCB)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Friday . The stock traded as high as $33.62 and last traded at $33.49, with a volume of 11574 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $33.13.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

UCB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial lowered their price target on United Community Banks from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on United Community Banks from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

United Community Banks Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.68.

United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $384.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $237.90 million. United Community Banks had a return on equity of 8.36% and a net margin of 13.04%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that United Community Banks, Inc. will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

United Community Banks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. United Community Banks’s payout ratio is currently 62.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Jefferson L. Harralson sold 10,275 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total transaction of $285,234.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 43,991 shares in the company, valued at $1,221,190.16. This represents a 18.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc operates as the financial holding company for United Community Bank that provides financial products and services to commercial, retail, government, education, energy, health care, and real estate sectors. It accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts.