Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Has $779,000 Holdings in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC cut its position in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,015 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 277 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned approximately 0.06% of Preferred Bank worth $779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PFBC. Copeland Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Preferred Bank in the 3rd quarter valued at $54,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd grew its position in Preferred Bank by 69.9% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 848 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Preferred Bank in the 3rd quarter worth $76,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in Preferred Bank by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,486 shares of the bank’s stock worth $112,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Preferred Bank by 194.1% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,906 shares of the bank’s stock worth $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258 shares during the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Stephens lowered shares of Preferred Bank from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Preferred Bank Price Performance

Shares of Preferred Bank stock opened at $87.18 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.50. Preferred Bank has a twelve month low of $66.88 and a twelve month high of $99.78. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 0.97.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.07. Preferred Bank had a net margin of 26.20% and a return on equity of 19.01%. The business had revenue of $132.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a positive change from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Preferred Bank’s payout ratio is 30.06%.

Preferred Bank Company Profile

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.