BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ:UBSI). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 4.63% to 18.16 million shares with purchase of 0.8 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 13.48% valued currently at $740.22 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.28 million to 13.78 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 3.52% or 0.25 million shares – to 7.21 million shares.
With over 2.81 million United Bankshares Inc. (UBSI) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $36.13 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $101.44 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -1.53% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -0.14%. Currently, there are 134.26M common shares owned by the public and among those 131.82M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for UBSI have a consensus price objective of $41.20. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $44.00 and a low of $38.00. The average price target is 12.31% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 4.92% over that period. But an upside of 17.89% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $41.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 68 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 38 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 188,478 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 30 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 92,001 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in United Bankshares Inc. are SPDR S&P Dividend ETF, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. SPDR S&P Dividend ETF owns 7.58 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $309.1 million. The company sold 2051.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 5.63% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 23373.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 4.12 million shares at a value of $167.87 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 3.06% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI) opened at $34.22, down -$1.96 from a prior closing price of $36.18. However, the script later moved the day high at 39.21, down -0.14%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -9.61% and -12.31% over the past three months. UBSI shares are trading -10.77% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 3.35% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $33.11 and touched a high of $44.15 over the same period. UBSI has an average intraday trading volume of 553.03K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -10.23%, -10.27%, and -6.92% respectively.
Institutional ownership of United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI) shares accounts for 72.00% of the company’s 134.26M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 4.24%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 48.95% and 22.82% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $4.94B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.08. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 12.86, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $2.81. The company has a PEG of 1.61 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.06. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 6.17% over the week and 2.67% over the month.
Analysts forecast that United Bankshares Inc. (UBSI) will achieve an EPS of $0.75 for the current quarter, $0.74 for the next quarter and $2.94 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.72 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.82. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.6 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -1.00%, and 0.07% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 8.00% over the next five years, compared to 7.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate United Bankshares Inc. (UBSI) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.80. Specifically, 0 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the UBSI, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Raymond James stated their Outperform rating for the stock in a research note on December 21, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $44. Piper Sandler coverage for the United Bankshares Inc. (UBSI) stock in a research note released on December 05, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $45. Janney was of a view on September 06, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while DA Davidson gave the stock Neutral rating on December 15, 2021, issuing a price target of $44- $38. Raymond James on their part issued Outperform rating on February 01, 2021.
