Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Short Interest Up 47.1% in July

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 361,800 shares, a growth of 47.1% from the June 30th total of 246,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 64,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Anthony Kenneth Ramos bought 13,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $17.25 per share, for a total transaction of $231,150.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $386,072.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have purchased 14,881 shares of company stock valued at $256,663. 11.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Community West Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Management Group Inc. bought a new position in Community West Bancshares during the first quarter valued at approximately $10,532,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,770,000. Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter worth $267,000. Black Maple Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Community West Bancshares by 81.9% in the first quarter. Black Maple Capital Management LP now owns 31,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 14,306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC bought a new stake in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $82,000. Institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CWBC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Community West Bancshares from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Community West Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.33.

Community West Bancshares Price Performance

CWBC traded down $0.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $20.00. The stock had a trading volume of 29,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 53,380. The business has a 50-day moving average of $18.08 and a 200-day moving average of $16.81. Community West Bancshares has a one year low of $13.55 and a one year high of $24.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $377.40 million, a PE ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 0.88.

Community West Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 2nd. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. Community West Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.40%.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for Community West Bank, N.A. that provides various financial products and services in California. The company offers deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and fixed rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposits; and cash management products.