Guggenheim Capital LLC Reduces Position in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Guggenheim Capital LLC lowered its stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC – Get Rating) by 22.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,776 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,521 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC owned 0.12% of Preferred Bank worth $1,225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PFBC. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in Preferred Bank by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 22,423 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,661,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 73.5% in the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 536 shares of the bank’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Preferred Bank by 55.9% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 669 shares of the bank’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund boosted its position in Preferred Bank by 2.8% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 9,841 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $669,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Preferred Bank by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 2,287 shares of the bank’s stock worth $156,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the period. 71.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on PFBC. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Preferred Bank from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Preferred Bank from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 22nd.

Preferred Bank Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PFBC opened at $69.98 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Preferred Bank has a 12-month low of $64.10 and a 12-month high of $78.69. The business has a 50 day moving average of $72.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.54. The company has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.08.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 18th. The bank reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $76.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.13 million. Preferred Bank had a net margin of 42.35% and a return on equity of 21.42%. As a group, analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 10 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 6th were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 5th. This is a boost from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.23%.

About Preferred Bank

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Preferred Bank operates as an independent commercial bank. It offers real estate financing for residential, commercial, industrial, and other income producing properties. Its business and consumer products include checking, savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts. The firm also offers treasury management services such as account reconciliation, remote deposit, cash and check courier services, merchant processing, and ACH credit origination.