Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $31.00 target price (up from $29.00) on shares of Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Stephens upped their price objective on Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.00.

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida Stock Performance

SBCF opened at $22.04 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.38. Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida has a 52-week low of $21.36 and a 52-week high of $31.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a PE ratio of 15.41 and a beta of 0.97.

Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.15. Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida had a net margin of 14.95% and a return on equity of 5.91%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida by 35.0% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 105,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,820,000 after acquiring an additional 27,403 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,239,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $112,978,000 after purchasing an additional 28,066 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 410,632 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,305,000 after purchasing an additional 12,142 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida in the 4th quarter valued at about $341,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,850,000. 81.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Seacoast Banking Co. of Florida

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of integrated financial services. It provides banking and investment services to businesses and consumers, including personal and business deposit products, Internet and mobile banking, personal, commercial and mortgage loans, wealth management services, and treasury management solutions.