AlphaQuest LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

AlphaQuest LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 67.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,662 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,475 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Preferred Bank were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of PFBC. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 592,566 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,553,000 after purchasing an additional 2,339 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 434,590 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $37,540,000 after acquiring an additional 18,868 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 352,597 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,300,000 after purchasing an additional 12,283 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Preferred Bank by 24.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 186,107 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,935,000 after buying an additional 35,979 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 70,530 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,092,000 after buying an additional 2,884 shares in the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PFBC has been the topic of several analyst reports. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Preferred Bank from $98.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Preferred Bank in a report on Thursday, January 30th.

Preferred Bank Stock Up 2.6 %

Preferred Bank stock opened at $83.16 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $87.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $86.57. Preferred Bank has a 1-year low of $70.22 and a 1-year high of $99.78.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last posted its 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 return on equity of 17.80% and a net margin of 25.00%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.61%. This is an increase from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. 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.