Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) Lifted to Buy at Janney Montgomery Scott

Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $23.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their prior target price of $24.00.

Sierra Bancorp Trading Up 0.4 %

BSRR opened at $20.50 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $300.33 million, a PE ratio of 8.44 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $18.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.66. Sierra Bancorp has a 12-month low of $15.01 and a 12-month high of $23.21.

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.69 by ($0.26). The company had revenue of $50.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.15 million. Sierra Bancorp had a net margin of 17.80% and a return on equity of 11.11%. As a group, research analysts expect that Sierra Bancorp will post 2.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sierra Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. Sierra Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.02%.

Institutional Trading of Sierra Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Sierra Bancorp by 15.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 77,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 10,496 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Sierra Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $280,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Sierra Bancorp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 996,631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,474,000 after purchasing an additional 3,348 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Sierra Bancorp by 118.2% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,218 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 8,243 shares during the period. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sierra Bancorp by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 43,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $984,000 after purchasing an additional 7,260 shares during the period. 55.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Sierra Bancorp

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts.