Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP) Short Interest Update

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, a growth of 25.8% from the February 28th total of 1,200,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 489,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PNFP. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners from $123.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Pinnacle Financial Partners from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $142.00 target price on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group began coverage on Pinnacle Financial Partners in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $133.00 price target for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $135.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $125.18.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Stock Performance

NASDAQ PNFP traded down $1.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $104.75. 559,155 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 476,472. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The business has a 50 day moving average of $114.35 and a 200-day moving average of $112.46. Pinnacle Financial Partners has a 12-month low of $73.62 and a 12-month high of $131.91.

Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.10. Pinnacle Financial Partners had a return on equity of 9.04% and a net margin of 15.48%. The company had revenue of $475.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $470.33 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pinnacle Financial Partners will post 7.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a positive change from Pinnacle Financial Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Pinnacle Financial Partners’s payout ratio is 16.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Glenda Baskin Glover sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.55, for a total transaction of $304,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,009,711.65. This represents a 23.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO M Terry Turner sold 2,000 shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.63, for a total transaction of $201,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 254,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,615,567.76. The trade was a 0.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 95,350 shares of company stock worth $11,421,320. Company insiders own 1.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pinnacle Financial Partners

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PNFP. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,716,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $266,127,000 after acquiring an additional 282,016 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 689.2% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 21,932 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after buying an additional 19,153 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 9,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $916,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in Pinnacle Financial Partners in the third quarter worth $215,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 7.2% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 16,364 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,603,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.40% of the company’s stock.

About Pinnacle Financial Partners

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and professional entities in the United States. The company accepts various deposits, including savings, noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and provides treasury management services, which includes online wire origination, enhanced ACH origination services, positive pay, zero balance and sweep accounts, automated bill pay services, electronic receivables processing, lockbox processing, and merchant card acceptance services.