Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Decreases Holdings in Community Financial System, Inc. $CBU

Key Points

• Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP reduced its holdings in Community Financial System by 60.8%, selling 6,117 shares and retaining 3,937 shares valued at $224,000.
• Analysts have recently downgraded Community Financial System's stock from a "hold" to a "sell" rating, with a consensus of a "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $68.00.
• The company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.47, with an annualized yield of 3.1%, reflecting a 2.2% rise from the previous dividend.

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP lowered its stake in shares of Community Financial System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU - Free Report) by 60.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,937 shares of the bank's stock after selling 6,117 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP's holdings in Community Financial System were worth $224,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBU. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. bought a new position in Community Financial System during the fourth quarter worth about $32,368,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Community Financial System during the first quarter worth about $9,294,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Community Financial System by 80.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 339,696 shares of the bank's stock worth $19,315,000 after purchasing an additional 151,189 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Community Financial System by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 677,841 shares of the bank's stock worth $41,809,000 after purchasing an additional 145,172 shares during the period. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in Community Financial System by 27.6% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 167,039 shares of the bank's stock worth $9,498,000 after purchasing an additional 36,132 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.79% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Community Financial System from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Community Financial System from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Community Financial System Price Performance

CBU traded down $0.53 on Thursday, reaching $60.59. The company had a trading volume of 48,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 239,673. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.17. The company has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Community Financial System, Inc. has a 52-week low of $49.44 and a 52-week high of $73.39.

Community Financial System (NYSE:CBU - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $199.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $201.93 million. Community Financial System had a net margin of 19.91% and a return on equity of 10.71%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Community Financial System, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Community Financial System Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a $0.47 dividend. This is an increase from Community Financial System's previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 12th. Community Financial System's payout ratio is 50.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Jeffrey M. Levy sold 1,440 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.38, for a total value of $88,387.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,657 shares of the company's stock, valued at $408,606.66. This trade represents a 17.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Community Financial System

Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, institutional, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.