Stellarone Corp $STEL Holdings Boosted by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL) by 6.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,499,218 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 154,135 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Stellarone were worth $91,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in STEL. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Stellarone by 202.1% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares during the period. ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new stake in shares of Stellarone in the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,851,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Stellarone by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 222,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,129,000 after purchasing an additional 2,450 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in Stellarone by 5,026.0% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 9,650 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in Stellarone during the 1st quarter worth $1,530,000. 54.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Stellarone Stock Performance

STEL opened at $39.32 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Stellarone Corp has a 1-year low of $27.88 and a 1-year high of $40.21. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $38.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.32.

Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. Stellarone had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 17.56%.The company had revenue of $111.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.41 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Stellarone Corp will post 2.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stellarone Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio is 29.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.00.

Stellarone Profile

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers.