Renaissance Technologies LLC Makes New Investment in Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. $MCB

Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. (NYSE:MCB) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 12,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,033,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Emerald Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Metropolitan Bank during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of Metropolitan Bank by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 346 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Metropolitan Bank during the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Metropolitan Bank in the fourth quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in Metropolitan Bank by 41.5% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,670 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.83% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Daniel F. Dougherty bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $89.98 per share, for a total transaction of $89,980.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 33,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,987,066.06. This trade represents a 3.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert C. Patent sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.29, for a total value of $922,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 76,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,031,113.65. This trade represents a 11.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 29,897 shares of company stock worth $2,797,252 in the last quarter. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Metropolitan Bank from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Metropolitan Bank from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered Metropolitan Bank from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Metropolitan Bank in a report on Friday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $105.00.

Metropolitan Bank Stock Performance

MCB opened at $94.12 on Friday. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. has a 52-week low of $64.66 and a 52-week high of $102.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $95.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.57.

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The company reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.30 by ($0.76). The business had revenue of $93.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.39 million. Metropolitan Bank had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 10.22%.

Metropolitan Bank Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 11th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were issued a $0.35 dividend. This is a boost from Metropolitan Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. Metropolitan Bank’s payout ratio is 17.72%.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB), through its principal subsidiary Metropolitan Commercial Bank, operates as a New York–based regional financial institution providing a range of commercial and consumer banking services. The company offers deposit products including checking, savings and money market accounts, as well as business and personal certificates of deposit. On the lending side, Metropolitan Bank extends commercial real estate financing, equipment loans, working capital lines of credit and consumer installment loans tailored to the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises and individual customers.

In addition to traditional deposit and lending services, Metropolitan Bank provides specialized treasury and cash-management solutions, foreign exchange services and letters of credit for both domestic businesses and multinational clients.