T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Increases Position in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC - Free Report) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,129,287 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 5,114 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned about 7.83% of Preferred Bank worth $97,548,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Preferred Bank by 24.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 186,107 shares of the bank's stock worth $14,935,000 after purchasing an additional 35,979 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 19,879 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 6,056 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in Preferred Bank by 46.2% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 914 shares of the bank's stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Preferred Bank by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 352,597 shares of the bank's stock valued at $28,300,000 after buying an additional 12,283 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Preferred Bank by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 26,222 shares of the bank's stock worth $2,265,000 after acquiring an additional 3,516 shares in the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PFBC. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Preferred Bank from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $91.00 price target on shares of Preferred Bank in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Preferred Bank from $108.00 to $96.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday.

Preferred Bank Stock Performance

Shares of Preferred Bank stock traded down $1.36 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $79.64. 29,228 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 83,763. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.27 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.79. Preferred Bank has a 52-week low of $71.43 and a 52-week high of $99.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The bank reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $65.96 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.78 million. Preferred Bank had a net margin of 25.00% and a return on equity of 17.80%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.44 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 7th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 7th. Preferred Bank's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.85%.

Preferred Bank 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.