Brokerages Set Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) Target Price at $37.00

Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.50.

PEBO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Hovde Group increased their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Peoples Bancorp in a report on Friday, May 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Peoples Bancorp from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on Peoples Bancorp from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd.

Insider Activity at Peoples Bancorp

In other news, Director Dwight Eric Smith bought 1,000 shares of Peoples Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $34.51 per share, for a total transaction of $34,510.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 9,256 shares in the company, valued at approximately $319,424.56. This represents a 12.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Peoples Bancorp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PEBO. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Peoples Bancorp by 391.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 198,742 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,968,000 after acquiring an additional 158,327 shares in the last quarter. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Peoples Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,817,000. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL lifted its position in Peoples Bancorp by 211.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 83,279 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 56,548 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its position in Peoples Bancorp by 32.0% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 216,843 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,503,000 after acquiring an additional 52,608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Peoples Bancorp by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,080,137 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $62,467,000 after acquiring an additional 48,166 shares in the last quarter. 60.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Peoples Bancorp stock opened at $38.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $35.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.26. Peoples Bancorp has a 1-year low of $27.49 and a 1-year high of $38.84. The company has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.31 and a beta of 0.62.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The bank reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.02. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 17.92%.The firm had revenue of $119.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.72 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp will post 3.4 EPS for the current year.

Peoples Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. This is a boost from Peoples Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Peoples Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.85%.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Marietta, Ohio. Through its subsidiary Peoples Bank, the company provides a comprehensive range of commercial and consumer banking services designed to serve individuals, businesses and institutional clients. Its deposit products include checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit and digital banking platforms that enable secure online and mobile access.

On the lending side, Peoples Bancorp offers commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate financing, construction and agricultural lending, as well as residential mortgage products.