23,825 Shares in Beacon Financial Corporation $BBT Purchased by Gamco Investors INC. ET AL

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new stake in Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE:BBT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 23,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $628,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Beacon Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $253,245,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,274,000. UBS Group AG acquired a new position in Beacon Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,815,000. Strategic Value Bank Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $16,448,000. Finally, Grace & White Inc. NY purchased a new stake in shares of Beacon Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $4,914,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on BBT shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Beacon Financial from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Beacon Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Beacon Financial from $36.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research cut shares of Beacon Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Beacon Financial from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.75.

Beacon Financial Price Performance

Shares of BBT stock opened at $28.82 on Friday. Beacon Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.81 and a 1 year high of $32.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $29.87 and its 200-day moving average is $28.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.81 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Beacon Financial (NYSE:BBT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $214.72 million for the quarter. Beacon Financial had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 6.97%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Beacon Financial Corporation will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Beacon Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a $0.3225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.29 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. Beacon Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 106.61%.

Beacon Financial announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Michael W. Mccurdy sold 17,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.04, for a total transaction of $538,016.32. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 25,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $793,227.20. This trade represents a 40.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Beacon Financial Profile

Truist Financial Corp. operates as a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individuals, businesses and municipalities. The firm offers a variety of loans and lease financing to individuals and entities, including insurance premium financing, permanent commercial real estate financing arrangements, loan servicing for third-party investors, direct consumer finance loans to individuals, credit card lending, automobile financing and equipment financing. It also markets a range of other services, including deposits, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, health Truist Financial Corp.