Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) Share Price Passes Below 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS) shares crossed below its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $48.30 and traded as low as $48.17. Peoples Financial Services shares last traded at $48.51, with a volume of 16,654 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on PFIS shares. Hovde Group raised their price target on shares of Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Stephens upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Down 3.4 %

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $52.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $468.57 million, a P/E ratio of 45.52 and a beta of 0.56.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.56. Peoples Financial Services had a net margin of 3.00% and a return on equity of 7.73%. The company had revenue of $74.01 million during the quarter. On average, analysts anticipate that Peoples Financial Services Corp. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Financial Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.618 dividend. This represents a $2.47 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. Peoples Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 239.81%.

Institutional Trading of Peoples Financial Services

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PFIS. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Peoples Financial Services by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 211,451 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,914,000 after acquiring an additional 27,463 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Peoples Financial Services by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 191,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,740,000 after acquiring an additional 9,122 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Peoples Financial Services by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 181,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,516,000 after acquiring an additional 11,236 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Peoples Financial Services by 45.0% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 50,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,385,000 after acquiring an additional 15,802 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Peoples Financial Services by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 47,178 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 7,831 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 31.67% of the company’s stock.

About Peoples Financial Services

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts.