Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) Reaches New 1-Year High at $77.93

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $77.93 and last traded at $77.50, with a volume of 24330 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $74.84.

Preferred Bank Trading Up 5.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business’s 50-day moving average is $73.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.04.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.06. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 30.93%. The company had revenue of $127.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $72.84 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Preferred Bank will post 9.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.59%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Preferred Bank

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFBC. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 96.7% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 16,959 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,236,000 after acquiring an additional 8,338 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Preferred Bank by 50.7% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 20,354 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,487,000 after purchasing an additional 6,850 shares during the period. Olympiad Research LP acquired a new position in Preferred Bank during the fourth quarter worth approximately $240,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Preferred Bank in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $402,000. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $942,000. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.