Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYBT)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $79.70 and last traded at $79.70, with a volume of 9928 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.11.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SYBT. Hovde Group downgraded Stock Yards Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $67.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens lowered Stock Yards Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on Stock Yards Bancorp from $65.50 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.25.

Stock Yards Bancorp Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.99. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.37 and a beta of 0.81.

Stock Yards Bancorp (NASDAQ:SYBT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.06. Stock Yards Bancorp had a net margin of 21.62% and a return on equity of 12.00%. The business had revenue of $130.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.57 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. will post 3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stock Yards Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. Stock Yards Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 34.07%.

Insider Activity at Stock Yards Bancorp

In other news, Director David P. Heintzman sold 2,700 shares of Stock Yards Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.07, for a total transaction of $170,289.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,878,603.02. This trade represents a 8.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Philip Poindexter sold 3,419 shares of Stock Yards Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.55, for a total value of $258,305.45. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 51,331 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,878,057.05. The trade was a 6.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,269 shares of company stock worth $2,514,725 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stock Yards Bancorp

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SYBT. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp by 0.8% in the second quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,223,176 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $60,755,000 after purchasing an additional 9,573 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp by 2.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 936,919 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,536,000 after acquiring an additional 24,856 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Stock Yards Bancorp by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 778,497 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,506,000 after purchasing an additional 15,156 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp by 0.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 636,744 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,480,000 after purchasing an additional 5,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Stock Yards Bancorp during the third quarter worth $30,255,000. 56.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Stock Yards Bancorp Company Profile

Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc operates as a holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company that provides various financial services for individuals, corporations, and others in the United States. It operates in two segments, Commercial Banking, and WM&T. The Commercial Banking segment offers a range of loan and deposit products to individual consumers and businesses in all its markets through retail lending, mortgage banking, deposit services, online banking, mobile banking, private banking, commercial lending, commercial real estate lending, leasing, treasury management services, merchant services, international banking, correspondent banking, and other banking services.