New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) Shares Down 1.6%

New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 1.6% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $3.12 and last traded at $3.17. 3,745,048 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 38,177,121 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.22.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Compass Point cut New York Community Bancorp from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $16.00 to $8.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America cut New York Community Bancorp from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $8.50 to $5.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on New York Community Bancorp from $5.00 to $3.50 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut New York Community Bancorp from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $13.00 to $7.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, TheStreet cut New York Community Bancorp from a "b-" rating to a "c+" rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and thirteen have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $5.64.

New York Community Bancorp Stock Down 3.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.70, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of 0.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $4.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.13.

New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported ($0.27) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.56). New York Community Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.22% and a net margin of 28.96%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $935.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that New York Community Bancorp, Inc. will post 0.07 EPS for the current year.

New York Community Bancorp Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 14th were paid a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.41%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 13th. New York Community Bancorp's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Thomas R. Cangemi bought 11,310 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $4.41 per share, with a total value of $49,877.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 69,704 shares in the company, valued at $307,394.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other New York Community Bancorp news, EVP Lee Matthew Smith bought 25,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $4.05 per share, for a total transaction of $101,250.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,440,683 shares in the company, valued at $5,834,766.15. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas R. Cangemi purchased 11,310 shares of New York Community Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $4.41 per share, for a total transaction of $49,877.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 69,704 shares of the company's stock, valued at $307,394.64. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 213,410 shares of company stock valued at $875,626 over the last quarter. 1.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On New York Community Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NYCB. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in shares of New York Community Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $1,755,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in New York Community Bancorp by 212.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,982,700 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $22,444,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,601 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in New York Community Bancorp by 79.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 108,619 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,111,000 after acquiring an additional 47,996 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in New York Community Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $463,000. Finally, Soros Fund Management LLC bought a new position in New York Community Bancorp in the third quarter valued at about $4,990,000. 67.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About New York Community Bancorp

New York Community Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Flagstar Bank, N.A. that provides banking products and services in the United States. The company's deposit products include interest-bearing checking and money market, savings, non-interest-bearing, and retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.