Meridian Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,534 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the period. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in U.S. Bancorp were worth $1,078,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Disciplined Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 1.8% during the first quarter. Disciplined Equity Management Inc. now owns 24,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,015,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 4.3% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 182,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,697,000 after buying an additional 7,443 shares during the period. Professional Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 9.5% during the first quarter. Professional Advisory Services Inc. now owns 436,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,431,000 after buying an additional 37,988 shares during the period. Wynn Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp during the first quarter worth approximately $415,000. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 6.0% during the first quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 67,623 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,855,000 after buying an additional 3,829 shares during the period. 77.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Aleem Gillani purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $37.32 per share, with a total value of $186,600.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $559,800. This trade represents a 50.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

U.S. Bancorp Price Performance

USB stock opened at $44.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $69.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.81, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.99. U.S. Bancorp has a twelve month low of $35.18 and a twelve month high of $53.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $6.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.92 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 14.75%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that U.S. Bancorp will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

U.S. Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. U.S. Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on USB. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $49.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $51.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded U.S. Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $57.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.67.

About U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.