New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $2.27 Million Holdings in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 15.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,222 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,516 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.18% of Preferred Bank worth $2,265,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 592,566 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,553,000 after purchasing an additional 2,339 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 415,722 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,362,000 after purchasing an additional 7,086 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 3.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 352,597 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,300,000 after purchasing an additional 12,283 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 24.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 186,107 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,935,000 after acquiring an additional 35,979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Preferred Bank by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 70,530 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,092,000 after acquiring an additional 2,884 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Preferred Bank in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Preferred Bank from $98.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Preferred Bank from $101.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Preferred Bank Stock Performance

Preferred Bank stock opened at $88.75 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $87.89 and a 200-day moving average of $86.21. Preferred Bank has a 1 year low of $69.69 and a 1 year high of $99.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.22 and a beta of 0.97.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.42 by ($0.17). Preferred Bank had a net margin of 25.00% and a return on equity of 17.80%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This is an increase from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.15%.

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. 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.