New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) Raised to Neutral at Wedbush

Wedbush upgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $3.50 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $3.00.

NYCB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of New York Community Bancorp from $6.00 to $4.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Compass Point downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their target price for the company from $16.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. DA Davidson downgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their target price for the company from $8.50 to $5.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Raymond James cut 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 report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, TheStreet cut New York Community Bancorp from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $5.39.

New York Community Bancorp Stock Performance

New York Community Bancorp stock opened at $3.40 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $3.40 and a 200-day moving average of $7.10. New York Community Bancorp has a 1 year low of $1.70 and a 1 year high of $14.22. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.95.

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

New York Community Bancorp Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. New York Community Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Marshall Lux bought 27,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $3.69 per share, for a total transaction of $99,999.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 64,872 shares in the company, valued at $239,377.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Thomas R. Cangemi acquired 11,310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $4.41 per share, for a total transaction of $49,877.10. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 69,704 shares in the company, valued at $307,394.64. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Marshall Lux acquired 27,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were bought at an average price of $3.69 per share, for a total transaction of $99,999.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 64,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,377.68. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 213,410 shares of company stock worth $875,626 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.62% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On New York Community Bancorp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NYCB. PL Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of New York Community Bancorp by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 940,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,027,000 after purchasing an additional 190,000 shares during the last quarter. Centric Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of New York Community Bancorp during the 1st quarter valued at $264,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New York Community Bancorp during the 1st quarter valued at $39,000. Delta Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of New York Community Bancorp by 314.7% during the 1st quarter. Delta Financial Group Inc. now owns 46,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 35,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of New York Community Bancorp during the 1st quarter valued at $39,000. 67.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.