Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) Sets New 52-Week High at $86.99

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $86.99 and last traded at $86.76, with a volume of 20417 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $85.03.

Preferred Bank Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 0.98. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $76.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.75.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.40 by $0.04. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 21.28% and a net margin of 28.70%. The firm had revenue of $71.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $68.60 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. Preferred Bank’s payout ratio is presently 27.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Preferred Bank

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFBC. Smith Graham & Co. Investment Advisors LP bought a new position in Preferred Bank during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,522,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Preferred Bank during the first quarter valued at approximately $5,951,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Preferred Bank during the first quarter valued at approximately $3,449,000. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in Preferred Bank during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $942,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Preferred Bank by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 868,073 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $66,642,000 after buying an additional 10,931 shares during the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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 in the United States. 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.