Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Sells 6,239 Shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lowered its stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 19.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 25,291 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 6,239 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in Preferred Bank were worth $1,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Smith Graham & Co. Investment Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank in the 4th quarter valued at $6,522,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Preferred Bank during the 1st quarter valued at about $5,951,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Preferred Bank in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,449,000. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank during the 4th quarter worth approximately $942,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 868,073 shares of the bank’s stock worth $66,642,000 after buying an additional 10,931 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PFBC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Preferred Bank from $88.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Stephens raised their target price on Preferred Bank from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday.

Preferred Bank Price Performance

PFBC opened at $86.06 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $77.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.18. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.31 and a beta of 0.98. Preferred Bank has a 12 month low of $58.52 and a 12 month high of $91.67.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.09. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 20.24% and a net margin of 27.35%. The company had revenue of $130.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.61 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. Preferred Bank’s payout ratio is presently 27.03%.

Preferred Bank Company 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 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.