Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. $MCB Shares Bought by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. (NYSE:MCB) by 6,344.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,636 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 8,502 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Metropolitan Bank were worth $646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Metropolitan Bank by 3.9% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $350,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Metropolitan Bank by 7.7% in the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $396,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new position in shares of Metropolitan Bank in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Metropolitan Bank by 41.5% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in Metropolitan Bank by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $416,000 after purchasing an additional 778 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on MCB. Zacks Research raised Metropolitan Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Metropolitan Bank from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Metropolitan Bank in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $92.00.

Metropolitan Bank Stock Performance

Shares of MCB stock opened at $95.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $81.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $982.93 million, a P/E ratio of 14.35 and a beta of 1.15. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. has a 12 month low of $47.08 and a 12 month high of $97.63.

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.70. Metropolitan Bank had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 13.49%.The company had revenue of $88.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $83.15 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. will post 7.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Metropolitan Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 27th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 27th. This is a positive change from Metropolitan Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Metropolitan Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert C. Patent sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.99, for a total transaction of $949,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 88,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,424,188.15. This represents a 10.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nick Rosenberg sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $112,762.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 25,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,330,936.19. The trade was a 4.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 16,320 shares of company stock worth $1,523,103. 6.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Metropolitan Bank Company Profile

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.