Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOB) by 8.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,799 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,272 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.05% of Live Oak Bancshares worth $1,127,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LOB. Quarry LP lifted its stake in Live Oak Bancshares by 98.6% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 713 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 68.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 2,026 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Live Oak Bancshares by 87.5% in the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 1,500 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Live Oak Bancshares by 1,885.5% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 2,206 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Live Oak Bancshares by 161.4% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,165 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $150,000 after buying an additional 1,954 shares during the last quarter. 63.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO John W. Sutherland sold 12,588 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total value of $616,812.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,015 shares in the company, valued at $686,735. This represents a 47.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William Henderson Cameron bought 1,000 shares of Live Oak Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $39.76 per share, for a total transaction of $39,760.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 202,217 shares in the company, valued at $8,040,147.92. This represents a 0.50 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 23.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Live Oak Bancshares from $57.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.50.

Live Oak Bancshares Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LOB opened at $38.81 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.41 and a beta of 1.69. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.03 and a fifty-two week high of $50.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.73.

Live Oak Bancshares (NASDAQ:LOB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $241.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $126.63 million. Live Oak Bancshares had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 7.99%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Live Oak Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Live Oak Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 7.55%.

About Live Oak Bancshares

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Live Oak Banking Company that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It operates through two segments, Banking and Fintech. The company accepts various deposit products, including noninterest-bearing demand, as well as interest-bearing checking, money market, savings, and time deposits.