Insider Selling: Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) EVP Sells 1,570 Shares of Stock

Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC) EVP Thomas Buonaiuto sold 1,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.20, for a total value of $25,434.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 35,469 shares in the company, valued at $574,597.80. This trade represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Thomas Buonaiuto also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, January 30th, Thomas Buonaiuto sold 1,311 shares of Flushing Financial stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.67, for a total value of $20,543.37.

Flushing Financial Trading Up 2.7%

FFIC traded up $0.44 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $16.59. 504,110 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 418,203. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $16.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.46. Flushing Financial Corporation has a 1-year low of $10.65 and a 1-year high of $17.79. The company has a market cap of $560.51 million, a PE ratio of 30.73 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The bank reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $58.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.27 million. Flushing Financial had a net margin of 3.86% and a return on equity of 5.96%. Equities analysts forecast that Flushing Financial Corporation will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flushing Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. Flushing Financial’s payout ratio is 162.96%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on FFIC shares. Zacks Research cut Flushing Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Flushing Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, November 9th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Flushing Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Flushing Financial from $14.50 to $16.80 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Flushing Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Flushing Financial has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $16.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIC. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Flushing Financial by 586.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,786,993 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $24,678,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,793 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Flushing Financial by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 813,159 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,662,000 after acquiring an additional 18,829 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Partners GP LP raised its stake in Flushing Financial by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Patriot Financial Partners GP LP now owns 675,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,019,000 after acquiring an additional 100,000 shares during the last quarter. Patriot Financial Partners GP II L.P. acquired a new stake in Flushing Financial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $9,322,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Flushing Financial by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 597,467 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 55,563 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.10% of the company’s stock.

Flushing Financial Company Profile

Flushing Financial Corporation is the bank holding company for Flushing Bank, a community-oriented financial institution headquartered in Flushing, Queens, New York. Tracing its origins to the founding of Flushing Bank in 1929, the holding company was established in 2006 to support the bank’s growth and diversification. Flushing Financial operates under the Nasdaq ticker FFIC, delivering a full suite of banking services to personal, commercial and institutional customers.

The company’s primary business activities include deposit-taking, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage banking and treasury management.