Preferred Bank $PFBC Shares Sold by Invesco Ltd.

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. reduced its stake in Preferred Bank by 3.0% in Q1, owning approximately 119,747 shares worth $10,018,000 after selling 3,686 shares.
• Preferred Bank announced a $125 million stock repurchase program, allowing the company to buy back up to 10.4% of its shares, indicating confidence in its own valuation.
• The bank reported earnings of $2.52 per share for its last quarter, exceeding estimates by $0.09, despite revenue falling short of expectations at $69.05 million.

Invesco Ltd. lowered its position in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC - Free Report) by 3.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 119,747 shares of the bank's stock after selling 3,686 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned 0.83% of Preferred Bank worth $10,018,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 890,350 shares of the bank's stock valued at $74,487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,074 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 475,025 shares of the bank's stock valued at $39,741,000 after purchasing an additional 40,435 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 468,759 shares of the bank's stock valued at $40,491,000 after purchasing an additional 1,443 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 261,130 shares of the bank's stock valued at $22,815,000 after purchasing an additional 27,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 28.8% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 147,702 shares of the bank's stock valued at $12,758,000 after purchasing an additional 32,990 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFBC has been the topic of several recent research reports. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Preferred Bank from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Preferred Bank from $96.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $103.67.

Preferred Bank Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:PFBC traded down $0.75 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $94.40. 49,673 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 82,733. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $91.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 0.75. Preferred Bank has a fifty-two week low of $71.90 and a fifty-two week high of $99.78.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The bank reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $69.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.96 million. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 16.64% and a net margin of 25.04%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 8th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 8th. Preferred Bank's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.71%.

Preferred Bank announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to buyback $125.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the bank to purchase up to 10.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Preferred Bank Company Profile

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.