Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 202,900 New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 202,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,076,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. 67.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

New York Community Bancorp Stock Up 1.7 %

NYCB stock opened at $2.97 on Thursday. New York Community Bancorp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1.70 and a 52-week high of $14.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.65. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.91.

New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported ($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by ($0.56). New York Community Bancorp had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 6.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that New York Community Bancorp, Inc. will post -0.08 EPS for the current year.

New York Community Bancorp Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 13th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.73%. New York Community Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on NYCB. Raymond James downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $3.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $7.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. TheStreet downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and thirteen have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Thomas R. Cangemi acquired 11,310 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $4.41 per share, with a total value of $49,877.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 69,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $307,394.64. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Thomas R. Cangemi acquired 11,310 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $4.41 per share, with a total value of $49,877.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 69,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $307,394.64. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Peter Schoels acquired 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.15 per share, for a total transaction of $415,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 147,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $611,867.70. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 213,410 shares of company stock worth $875,626 over the last 90 days. 1.62% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.