ProShare Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

ProShare Advisors LLC reduced its position in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 230,009 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 7,199 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Peoples Bancorp were worth $7,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PEBO. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 55.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 184,074 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,833,000 after buying an additional 65,612 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 19,682 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $624,000 after acquiring an additional 703 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 25,629 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 8,381 shares in the last quarter. Graver Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Peoples Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,806,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 55.0% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 29,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 10,394 shares during the period. 60.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.20, for a total transaction of $30,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,686 shares in the company, valued at $775,717.20. The trade was a 3.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEBO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $37.50 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Peoples Bancorp Trading Down 0.6%

PEBO stock opened at $30.82 on Monday. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 12-month low of $26.21 and a 12-month high of $37.07. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.01 and its 200 day moving average is $31.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.31 and a beta of 0.62.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.04). Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.07% and a net margin of 18.90%. The firm had revenue of $113.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $112.76 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. This is a boost from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Peoples Bancorp’s payout ratio is 52.06%.

Peoples Bancorp 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.