Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) Shares Acquired by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 2.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,828 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Preferred Bank were worth $571,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PFBC. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Preferred Bank in the 4th quarter worth $843,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 217.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 562 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 434,590 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,540,000 after acquiring an additional 18,868 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 191.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 5,993 shares of the bank’s stock worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 110.7% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 550 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. 72.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on PFBC shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Preferred Bank in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Preferred Bank from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Preferred Bank from $108.00 to $96.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th.

Preferred Bank Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:PFBC opened at $91.46 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $83.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.71 and a beta of 0.69. Preferred Bank has a 12-month low of $71.90 and a 12-month high of $99.78.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The bank reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $65.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.78 million. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 24.87%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.81 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to buyback $125.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 10.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Preferred Bank Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 8th. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.85%.

Preferred Bank Profile

Preferred Bank provides various commercial banking products and services to small and mid-sized businesses and their owners, entrepreneurs, real estate developers and investors, professionals, and high net worth individuals. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts; fixed-rate and fixed maturity retail, and non-retail certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts.