Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Ponce Financial Group, Inc. $PDLB

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ponce Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLB) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 35,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC owned 0.14% of Ponce Financial Group at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Ponce Financial Group by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 50,457 shares of the company’s stock worth $843,000 after buying an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Ponce Financial Group by 0.3% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 504,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,431,000 after buying an additional 1,658 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Ponce Financial Group by 9.9% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 242,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,046,000 after buying an additional 21,888 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Ponce Financial Group by 2.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 939,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,692,000 after buying an additional 25,634 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in Ponce Financial Group by 19.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 247,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,134,000 after acquiring an additional 40,176 shares during the last quarter. 64.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PDLB. Zacks Research cut Ponce Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings raised Ponce Financial Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (a)” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ponce Financial Group has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $24.00.

Ponce Financial Group Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of PDLB stock opened at $22.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $548.58 million, a P/E ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. Ponce Financial Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.91 and a twelve month high of $22.75.

Ponce Financial Group (NASDAQ:PDLB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 26th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $34.84 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.80 million. Ponce Financial Group had a net margin of 21.21% and a return on equity of 13.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ponce Financial Group, Inc. will post 10.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ponce Financial Group Profile

Ponce Financial Group, Inc is the holding company for Ponce Bank, a community-focused savings bank headquartered in the Bronx, New York. Through its banking subsidiary, the company provides financial services to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofit organizations in the New York metropolitan area.

Ponce Bank’s primary offerings include deposit accounts, residential and commercial real estate lending, multifamily and construction loans, commercial and industrial financing, consumer loans and other traditional banking services.