Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Increases Stock Position in Preferred Bank $PFBC

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 14.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,978 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Preferred Bank were worth $431,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PFBC. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Preferred Bank by 1.7% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,148,984 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $96,125,000 after purchasing an additional 19,697 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 890,350 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $74,487,000 after buying an additional 8,074 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 9.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 475,025 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,741,000 after buying an additional 40,435 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Preferred Bank in the 1st quarter worth about $33,915,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 28.8% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 257,062 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,506,000 after purchasing an additional 57,434 shares during the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PFBC. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Preferred Bank from $96.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Preferred Bank from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Preferred Bank in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.67.

Preferred Bank Trading Up 0.4%

Preferred Bank stock opened at $90.03 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $92.57 and a 200 day moving average of $87.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52 and a beta of 0.71. Preferred Bank has a 12-month low of $71.90 and a 12-month high of $99.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.09. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 25.04%.The business had revenue of $69.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.96 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Preferred Bank Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 7th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 7th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.71%.

About Preferred Bank

Preferred Bank provides various commercial banking products and services to small and mid-sized businesses and their owners, entrepreneurs, real estate developers and investors, professionals, and high net worth individuals. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts; fixed-rate and fixed maturity retail, and non-retail certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts.