Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Friday.

PEBO has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler began coverage on Peoples Bancorp in a report on Friday, February 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $34.00 price objective for the company. Hovde Group started coverage on Peoples Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 1st. They set a “market perform” rating and a $31.00 target price for the company.

Peoples Bancorp Trading Up 3.4 %

NASDAQ:PEBO traded up $0.95 on Friday, hitting $28.49. 153,880 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 125,193. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 0.76. Peoples Bancorp has a 52 week low of $23.05 and a 52 week high of $34.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $28.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.22.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $112.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $115.00 million. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 21.52%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Peoples Bancorp will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Peoples Bancorp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,691,943 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,471,000 after purchasing an additional 416,748 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,412,411 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,444,000 after purchasing an additional 51,087 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,886,085 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $63,674,000 after purchasing an additional 152,659 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,815,196 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,281,000 after purchasing an additional 213,264 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 56.9% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,031,164 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,377,000 after purchasing an additional 374,144 shares during the period. 60.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Peoples Bancorp

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.