Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Has $29.08 Million Stake in BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) by 14.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 761,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 98,686 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned approximately 1.02% of BankUnited worth $29,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of BankUnited during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,525,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of BankUnited during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,499,000. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC bought a new position in shares of BankUnited during the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,663,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of BankUnited by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,821,480 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $107,696,000 after buying an additional 322,368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of BankUnited during the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,163,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on BKU. Piper Sandler raised shares of BankUnited from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of BankUnited from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of BankUnited from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of BankUnited from $44.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Hovde Group lowered their price target on shares of BankUnited from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.55.

BankUnited Stock Down 1.5%

BankUnited stock opened at $33.88 on Monday. BankUnited, Inc. has a 1-year low of $26.78 and a 1-year high of $44.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.14.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.04. BankUnited had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 8.48%. The business had revenue of $255.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $264.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 EPS. On average, analysts predict that BankUnited, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

BankUnited Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.66%. This is a positive change from BankUnited’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 11th. BankUnited’s payout ratio is currently 38.51%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sanjiv Sobti purchased 1,000 shares of BankUnited stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $32.83 per share, for a total transaction of $32,830.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $715,103.06. This trade represents a 4.81% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Leslie Lunak sold 22,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.56, for a total transaction of $764,362.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 59,899 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,010,210.44. This trade represents a 27.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

BankUnited Company Profile

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.