Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Stock Bumped Up to Strong-Buy by Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Community West Bancshares in a report on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Community West Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.17.

Community West Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CWBC opened at $26.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $715.15 million, a PE ratio of 14.25 and a beta of 0.81. Community West Bancshares has a 1 year low of $19.78 and a 1 year high of $28.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.95.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.15. Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 10.12% and a net margin of 16.86%.The company had revenue of $54.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.65 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Community West Bancshares will post 2.38 EPS for the current year.

Community West Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. Community West Bancshares’s payout ratio is 25.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Community West Bancshares

In other Community West Bancshares news, Director Jagroop Gill bought 4,770 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $24.88 per share, with a total value of $118,677.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 588,067 shares in the company, valued at $14,631,106.96. The trade was a 0.82% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 5,374 shares of company stock worth $133,078. 9.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Community West Bancshares

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the second quarter valued at $64,110,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Community West Bancshares by 275.2% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,136,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,516,000 after buying an additional 833,312 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Community West Bancshares by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 840,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,582,000 after acquiring an additional 38,044 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,091,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $4,039,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Community West Bancshares Company Profile

Community West Bancshares is the bank holding company for Community West Bank, a California-based community bank headquartered in Goleta. Through its banking subsidiary, the company provides financial services to businesses, professionals, nonprofit organizations and individual customers.

Community West Bank offers business and personal deposit accounts, commercial and industrial lending, commercial real estate loans, construction financing, Small Business Administration loans and residential mortgage products.