Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) Stock Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Stellarone Corp (NYSE:STEL)’s stock price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $35.86 and traded as high as $38.70. Stellarone shares last traded at $38.5830, with a volume of 289,490 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Stellarone from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Stellarone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

Stellarone Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.96. The stock has a market cap of $1.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99 and a beta of 0.70.

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

Stellarone Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Stellarone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.27%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stellarone

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Stellarone by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,275,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $101,354,000 after acquiring an additional 18,749 shares during the last quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc acquired a new position in Stellarone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,194,000. Americana Partners LLC acquired a new position in Stellarone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $611,000. MQS Management LLC grew its stake in Stellarone by 49.1% in the fourth quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 18,432 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $570,000 after purchasing an additional 6,069 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its stake in Stellarone by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 172,890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,349,000 after purchasing an additional 3,687 shares in the last quarter. 54.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Stellarone

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.