United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCB)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $32.00 and last traded at $31.95, with a volume of 507693 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $28.35.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on UCB shares. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of United Community Banks from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of United Community Banks from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th.

United Community Banks Trading Up 14.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $28.88. The firm has a market cap of $3.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.03 and a beta of 0.88.

United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.01). United Community Banks had a return on equity of 8.36% and a net margin of 13.04%. The business had revenue of $384.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $237.90 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that United Community Banks, Inc. will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

United Community Banks Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.96%. This is a positive change from United Community Banks’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. United Community Banks’s payout ratio is currently 62.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Jefferson L. Harralson sold 10,275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total transaction of $285,234.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 43,991 shares in the company, valued at $1,221,190.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About United Community Banks

United Community Banks, Inc operates as the financial holding company for United Community Bank that provides financial products and services to commercial, retail, government, education, energy, health care, and real estate sectors. It accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts.