Denali Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Denali Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,800 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $674,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Preferred Bank in the 4th quarter valued at $65,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank during the third quarter worth $76,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 46.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 914 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 194.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,906 shares of the bank’s stock worth $153,000 after buying an additional 1,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 138.7% in the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 2,024 shares of the bank’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 1,176 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Preferred Bank in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson upped their price target on Preferred Bank from $98.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Preferred Bank from $101.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st.

Preferred Bank Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of PFBC opened at $87.29 on Thursday. Preferred Bank has a 12-month low of $69.69 and a 12-month high of $99.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $87.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.42 by ($0.17). Preferred Bank had a net margin of 25.00% and a return on equity of 17.80%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.15%.

Preferred Bank 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.