Denali Advisors LLC Takes $249,000 Position in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Denali Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,300 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 667,256 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,745,000 after purchasing an additional 10,259 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in Preferred Bank in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $942,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Preferred Bank during the 4th quarter worth $402,000. Olympiad Research LP bought a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank during the 4th quarter valued at $240,000. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 50.7% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 20,354 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after purchasing an additional 6,850 shares during the period. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on PFBC shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Preferred Bank from $88.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of Preferred Bank from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th.

Preferred Bank Price Performance

PFBC opened at $80.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.81 and a beta of 0.96. Preferred Bank has a 12 month low of $58.52 and a 12 month high of $91.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.05.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.09. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 20.24% and a net margin of 27.35%. The company had revenue of $130.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.61 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.03%.

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.