Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) Short Interest Up 13.5% in August

by · The Markets Daily

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,280,000 shares, an increase of 13.5% from the August 15th total of 2,890,000 shares. Approximately 5.5% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 498,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Howard L. Kasanoff sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.20, for a total transaction of $357,600.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,481.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cullen/Frost Bankers news, EVP Howard L. Kasanoff sold 3,000 shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.20, for a total transaction of $357,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $190,481.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Candace K. Wolfshohl sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.65, for a total value of $598,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,753 shares in the company, valued at $2,243,796.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cullen/Frost Bankers

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,412,843 shares of the bank’s stock worth $695,729,000 after purchasing an additional 19,755 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 18.4% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,192,486 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $359,378,000 after buying an additional 495,215 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 18.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,021,559 shares of the bank’s stock worth $114,994,000 after acquiring an additional 161,580 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 14.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 953,098 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,856,000 after acquiring an additional 120,333 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 821,103 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $92,432,000 after acquiring an additional 12,897 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE CFR opened at $110.68 on Wednesday. Cullen/Frost Bankers has a 12-month low of $82.25 and a 12-month high of $123.17. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.00.

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE:CFR – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.14. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.51%. The company had revenue of $528.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $506.83 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.47 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Cullen/Frost Bankers will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.95 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $3.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. This is a boost from Cullen/Frost Bankers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Cullen/Frost Bankers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CFR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $106.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $102.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $109.00 to $100.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cullen/Frost Bankers has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.93.

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Cullen/Frost Bankers Company Profile

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Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Frost Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services in Texas. The company offers commercial banking services to corporations, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, interim construction related to industrial and commercial properties, equipment, inventories and accounts receivables, and acquisitions; and treasury management services, as well as originates commercial leasing services.

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