Granite Investment Partners LLC Invests $1.98 Million in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. $CFR

Granite Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 15,599 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,977,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CFR. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 29,386 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,725,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 35.7% during the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the bank’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 0.7% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 53,684 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,806,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in Cullen/Frost Bankers in the third quarter valued at $29,769,000. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 10.0% in the third quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 330,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,834,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cullen/Frost Bankers

In other news, EVP Coolidge E. Rhodes, Jr. sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.00, for a total transaction of $88,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $481,965. This represents a 15.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Bobby Berman sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.07, for a total value of $137,070.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 28,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,893,610.42. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 1,700 shares of company stock worth $225,970 over the last three months. 2.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $144.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen restated a “positive” rating on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $136.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.92.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Trading Down 2.4%

NYSE:CFR opened at $141.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.30, a P/E/G ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 0.65. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. has a 52-week low of $100.31 and a 52-week high of $148.97. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $136.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $129.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE:CFR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The bank reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $562.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $578.05 million. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a return on equity of 15.49% and a net margin of 22.21%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current year.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Cullen/Frost Bankers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.32%.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Profile

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc is the holding company for Frost Bank, a Texas-chartered financial institution whose origins date back to 1868 in San Antonio. As one of the oldest banking organizations in the state, it offers a broad range of services to individuals, small and large businesses, and institutional clients. Core banking activities include commercial lending, deposit services, cash management and trade finance, while consumer products cover residential mortgages, personal lines of credit and home equity loans.

Beyond traditional banking, the company provides comprehensive treasury and equipment leasing solutions tailored to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements.