Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Increases Dividend to $0.12 Per Share

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a positive change from Community West Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Community West Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 24.9% per year over the last three years. Community West Bancshares has a dividend payout ratio of 11.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Community West Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CWBC opened at $18.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $161.27 million, a P/E ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. Community West Bancshares has a one year low of $12.59 and a one year high of $24.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.04.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $22.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.86 million. Community West Bancshares had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 11.58%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada acquired a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth approximately $90,000. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 1st quarter worth approximately $165,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 1st quarter worth approximately $214,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth approximately $237,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Community West Bancshares by 44.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 5,343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. TheStreet lowered Community West Bancshares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Community West Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. They set a “hold” rating for the company.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for Community West Bank, N.A. that provides various financial products and services in California. The company offers deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and fixed rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposits; and cash management products.