Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) Board of Directors Announces Share Repurchase Program

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, July 17th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Metropolitan Bank Stock Performance

NYSE:MCB opened at $76.85 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $819.25 million, a P/E ratio of 13.00 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.73. Metropolitan Bank has a twelve month low of $40.21 and a twelve month high of $77.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.14. Metropolitan Bank had a net margin of 13.49% and a return on equity of 10.53%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Metropolitan Bank will post 7.31 EPS for the current year.

Metropolitan Bank Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 28th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of Metropolitan Bank from $75.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Metropolitan Bank

In other Metropolitan Bank news, SVP Norman Scott sold 3,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.57, for a total transaction of $199,457.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 12,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $759,911.22. This trade represents a 20.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark R. Defazio sold 20,517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.43, for a total value of $1,342,427.31. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 94,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,162,524.55. This represents a 17.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 61,450 shares of company stock valued at $4,005,911. Company insiders own 6.09% of the company’s stock.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Metropolitan Commercial Bank that provides a range of business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to small businesses, middle-market enterprises, public entities, and individuals in the New York metropolitan area.