Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Increases Dividend to $0.12 Per Share

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 2nd. This is an increase from Community West Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Community West Bancshares has increased its dividend by an average of 31.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Community West Bancshares has a payout ratio of 17.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.1%.

Community West Bancshares Stock Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ:CWBC opened at $17.52 on Tuesday. Community West Bancshares has a 1-year low of $12.59 and a 1-year high of $24.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $156.10 million, a P/E ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $16.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.30.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $11.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.60 million. Community West Bancshares had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 11.58%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Community West Bancshares will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CWBC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Community West Bancshares from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. TheStreet lowered Community West Bancshares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com downgraded Community West Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted 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 note on Monday, April 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.33.

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.