Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) Upgraded at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) from a market perform rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $74.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on INDB. StockNews.com cut shares of Independent Bank from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Independent Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Independent Bank from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.50.

Independent Bank Price Performance

Independent Bank stock opened at $62.80 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.28. The company has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.12 and a beta of 0.74. Independent Bank has a 1 year low of $44.63 and a 1 year high of $68.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Independent Bank (NASDAQ:INDB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $250.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.24 million. Independent Bank had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 7.41%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Independent Bank will post 4.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Independent Bank Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 4th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Independent Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in INDB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Independent Bank by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,272,986 shares of the bank’s stock worth $347,015,000 after acquiring an additional 69,312 shares in the last quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its holdings in Independent Bank by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 8,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $463,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Independent Bank by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 50,777 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,641,000 after acquiring an additional 8,364 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Independent Bank by 89.8% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,769 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,236,000 after acquiring an additional 11,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Independent Bank during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,169,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.40% of the company’s stock.

About Independent Bank

Independent Bank Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Rockland Trust Company that provides commercial banking products and services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in the United States. The company provides interest checking, money market, and savings accounts, as well as demand deposits and time certificates of deposit.