BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE:BKU) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $40.55.

Several research analysts recently issued reports on BKU shares. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on BankUnited from $38.00 to $34.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler raised BankUnited from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on BankUnited from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Hovde Group dropped their target price on shares of BankUnited from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of BankUnited from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Leslie Lunak sold 22,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.56, for a total transaction of $764,362.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 59,899 shares in the company, valued at $2,010,210.44. This represents a 27.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kevin A. Malcolm sold 3,234 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.18, for a total transaction of $113,772.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $430,955. The trade was a 20.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BankUnited

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BKU. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in BankUnited by 50.5% during the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 280,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,653,000 after purchasing an additional 94,032 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in BankUnited in the first quarter valued at approximately $16,338,000. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in BankUnited in the first quarter valued at approximately $231,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in BankUnited by 56.9% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 564,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,426,000 after buying an additional 204,523 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in BankUnited during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,155,000. 99.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BankUnited Trading Up 5.3%

NYSE BKU opened at $35.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58 and a beta of 1.29. BankUnited has a 12 month low of $26.78 and a 12 month high of $44.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $255.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $264.35 million. BankUnited had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 8.48%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that BankUnited will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

BankUnited Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. This is an increase from BankUnited’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 11th. BankUnited’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.51%.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services.