Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS) Shares Acquired by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Provident Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:PFS – Get Rating) by 40.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,040 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,231 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.12% of Provident Financial Services worth $1,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Provident Financial Services by 0.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,351,187 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $265,617,000 after buying an additional 70,302 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Provident Financial Services by 1.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,217,716 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $160,245,000 after buying an additional 124,787 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Provident Financial Services by 1.5% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,579,685 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $108,805,000 after buying an additional 81,452 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Provident Financial Services by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,308,850 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $64,523,000 after buying an additional 52,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Provident Financial Services by 60.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,073,084 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $25,110,000 after buying an additional 403,067 shares during the last quarter. 65.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on PFS shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Provident Financial Services in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Provident Financial Services from $25.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday, May 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Provident Financial Services from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.25.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

PFS stock opened at $16.31 on Tuesday. Provident Financial Services, Inc. has a 12-month low of $14.54 and a 12-month high of $25.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $17.84 and a 200-day moving average of $20.82. The company has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.06 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The savings and loans company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $130.48 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $132.22 million. Provident Financial Services had a net margin of 28.77% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Provident Financial Services, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Provident Financial Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 12th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 11th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.89%. Provident Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Lista acquired 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $20.62 per share, for a total transaction of $30,930.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 5,241 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,069.42. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have bought 4,560 shares of company stock worth $83,653 in the last quarter. 4.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Provident Financial Services Profile

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Provident Financial Services, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. The company was founded on January 15, 2003 and is headquartered in Jersey City, NJ.