Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) Short Interest Up 5.7% in December

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,700 shares, an increase of 5.7% from the November 30th total of 3,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days. Currently, 0.1% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Finward Bancorp

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Finward Bancorp stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,662 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,825 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned about 0.90% of Finward Bancorp worth $1,237,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Institutional investors own 26.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Hovde Group upgraded Finward Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, September 6th.

Finward Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Finward Bancorp stock opened at $28.11 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $30.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.95. The company has a market capitalization of $121.27 million, a PE ratio of 10.45 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Finward Bancorp has a 52 week low of $22.82 and a 52 week high of $33.50.

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $14.87 million for the quarter. Finward Bancorp had a net margin of 10.44% and a return on equity of 7.60%. As a group, analysts expect that Finward Bancorp will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Finward Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. Finward Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.84%.

About Finward Bancorp

Finward Bancorp operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides various banking products and services. The company’s deposit products include non-interest- and interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificate accounts, and retirement savings plans.