Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $102.00.

PFBC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Preferred Bank from $105.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Preferred Bank from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Preferred Bank

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PFBC. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 288.4% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 74,636 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,746,000 after buying an additional 55,418 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 40,612.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 52,112 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,896,000 after buying an additional 51,984 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Preferred Bank by 15.7% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 337,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,534,000 after purchasing an additional 45,946 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Preferred Bank by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 199,419 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,831,000 after purchasing an additional 33,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Preferred Bank by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 206,622 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,511,000 after purchasing an additional 33,124 shares in the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Preferred Bank Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PFBC opened at $104.82 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.85. Preferred Bank has a fifty-two week low of $81.50 and a fifty-two week high of $105.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.81 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $2.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.05. Preferred Bank had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 17.52%. The business had revenue of $69.62 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.76 million. On average, analysts predict that Preferred Bank will post 10.67 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.96%.

Preferred Bank Company Profile

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ: PFBC) is a California-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Los Angeles. The institution offers a full range of banking products and services to businesses and individuals, with a particular emphasis on commercial real estate lending, business banking, treasury management and deposit accounts. Preferred Bank operates through branch offices across Southern California and national loan production offices in major U.S. markets.

The bank’s core lending portfolio focuses on commercial real estate acquisition, development and investment properties.