Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 72,053 Shares of Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NWBI) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,958,897 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after selling 72,053 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Northwest Bancshares were worth $39,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 7.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 12,699 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $170,000 after buying an additional 851 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 1.6% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 64,000 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $739,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 1.6% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 70,409 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 93.7% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 1,420 shares during the period. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Northwest Bancshares by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 111,245 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,296,000 after buying an additional 1,446 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Northwest Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday.

Northwest Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NWBI opened at $14.72 on Friday. Northwest Bancshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $10.45 and a 12 month high of $15.35. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.29 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Northwest Bancshares (NASDAQ:NWBI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The savings and loans company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.26. Northwest Bancshares had a net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 8.24%. The business had revenue of $199.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Northwest Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 18th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Northwest Bancshares’s payout ratio is 105.26%.

About Northwest Bancshares

Northwest Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Northwest Bank, a state-chartered savings bank that provides personal and business banking solutions. The company accepts various deposits, including checking, savings, money market deposit, term certificate, and individual retirement accounts.