BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) Reaches New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $32.00 to $35.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. BankUnited traded as high as $37.85 and last traded at $37.77, with a volume of 749068 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $36.86.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BKU. Wedbush raised their price objective on BankUnited from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on BankUnited from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com upgraded BankUnited from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on BankUnited from $33.00 to $34.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on BankUnited from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.68.

Insider Activity at BankUnited

In related news, Director John N. Digiacomo sold 1,500 shares of BankUnited stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.28, for a total transaction of $43,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,482 shares in the company, valued at $394,752.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BankUnited

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in BankUnited by 3.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,483,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $265,542,000 after purchasing an additional 280,993 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in BankUnited by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,577 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,639,000 after purchasing an additional 251,281 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in BankUnited by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,427,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,708,000 after purchasing an additional 80,577 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in BankUnited by 6.4% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,552,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,467,000 after purchasing an additional 93,119 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in BankUnited by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,448,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,989,000 after purchasing an additional 212,496 shares during the period. 99.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BankUnited Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.23. The company has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.08 and a beta of 1.35.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $250.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.65 million. BankUnited had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 8.41%. The business’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that BankUnited, Inc. will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BankUnited Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be paid a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 12th. BankUnited’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.00%.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.