Commonwealth Financial Services LLC Lowers Position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Commonwealth Financial Services LLC lessened its position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,339 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,515 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Peoples Bancorp worth $740,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PEBO. Spire Wealth Management bought a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 12,008 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 3,690 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Peoples Bancorp by 29.8% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,636 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 3,593 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 316.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 61,645 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,855,000 after purchasing an additional 46,845 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 850,654 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,601,000 after purchasing an additional 22,285 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on PEBO shares. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $37.50 price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.90.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In other Peoples Bancorp news, Director S Craig Beam sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.31, for a total transaction of $137,240.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $815,205.60. The trade was a 14.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.13, for a total value of $34,130.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 29,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,000,759.86. The trade was a 3.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,000 shares of company stock valued at $411,010. 3.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Peoples Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Peoples Bancorp stock opened at $32.14 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.99. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.74 and a 52 week high of $37.07. The company has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.71 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.04 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.34%.

Peoples Bancorp Company Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.