Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) Share Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) shares passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $83.85 and traded as high as $85.73. Preferred Bank shares last traded at $85.33, with a volume of 82,987 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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 Stock Down 4.6 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.16 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $90.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.46 EPS 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 prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 9.75 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This is an increase from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.06%.

Institutional Trading of Preferred Bank

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFBC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 680,337 shares of the bank’s stock worth $51,357,000 after purchasing an additional 4,539 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Preferred Bank by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 592,566 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,553,000 after acquiring an additional 2,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Preferred Bank by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 415,722 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,362,000 after acquiring an additional 7,086 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Preferred Bank by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 352,597 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,300,000 after acquiring an additional 12,283 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 186,107 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,935,000 after purchasing an additional 35,979 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

About Preferred Bank

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.