Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI) Short Interest Down 22.0% in November

Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 49,200 shares, a drop of 22.0% from the October 31st total of 63,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 39,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Financial Institutions from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Institutional Trading of Financial Institutions

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FISI. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Financial Institutions by 48.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 44,798 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 14,606 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Financial Institutions by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,685 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,036,000 after purchasing an additional 7,045 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Financial Institutions in the 3rd quarter valued at about $224,000. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Financial Institutions during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,706,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 6.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 283,707 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,309,000 after buying an additional 17,395 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.45% of the company’s stock.

Financial Institutions Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of FISI opened at $27.16 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $420.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $25.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.11. Financial Institutions has a 52-week low of $16.29 and a 52-week high of $29.14.

Financial Institutions (NASDAQ:FISI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.08. Financial Institutions had a return on equity of 11.32% and a net margin of 13.72%. The business had revenue of $50.12 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Financial Institutions will post 3.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Financial Institutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.42%. Financial Institutions’s payout ratio is 37.74%.

Financial Institutions Company Profile

Financial Institutions, Inc operates as a holding company for the Five Star Bank, a chartered bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals, municipalities, and businesses in New York. The company provides checking and savings account programs, including money market accounts, certificates of deposit, sweep investments, and individual retirement and other qualified plan accounts, as well as NOW accounts.