Bankwell Financial Group (NASDAQ:BWFG) Shares Pass Above 50-Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Bankwell Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:BWFG)’s share price passed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a fifty day moving average of $33.72 and traded as high as $35.30. Bankwell Financial Group shares last traded at $35.18, with a volume of 14,646 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Bankwell Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Bankwell Financial Group from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th.

Bankwell Financial Group Trading Up 1.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.64. The company has a market cap of $276.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.41 and a beta of 0.67.

Bankwell Financial Group (NASDAQ:BWFG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.14. Bankwell Financial Group had a return on equity of 4.60% and a net margin of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $23.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.63 million.

Bankwell Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 9th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 9th. Bankwell Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.96%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Steven H. Brunner sold 807 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.36, for a total value of $26,921.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,548 shares in the company, valued at $51,641.28. This trade represents a 34.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders bought a total of 1,306 shares of company stock worth $46,585 over the last 90 days. 19.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Bankwell Financial Group by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 30,262 shares of the bank’s stock worth $943,000 after purchasing an additional 7,908 shares in the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Bankwell Financial Group by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 90,358 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,815,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Bankwell Financial Group by 102.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 23,590 shares of the bank’s stock worth $735,000 after purchasing an additional 11,952 shares in the last quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Bankwell Financial Group by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 174,584 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,438,000 after purchasing an additional 40,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Bankwell Financial Group by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,035 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,612,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 35.80% of the company’s stock.

About Bankwell Financial Group

Bankwell Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Bankwell Bank that provides various banking services for individual and commercial customers. It offers various traditional depository products, including checking, savings, money market, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides first mortgage loans secured by one-to-four family owner occupied residential properties for personal use; home equity loans and home equity lines of credit secured by owner occupied one-to-four family residential properties; loans secured by commercial real estate, multi-family dwellings, owner-occupied commercial real estate, and investor-owned one-to-four family dwellings; commercial construction loans for commercial development projects, including apartment buildings and condominiums, as well as office buildings, retail, and other income producing properties; land loans; commercial business loans secured by assignments of corporate assets and personal guarantees of the business owners; loans to finance insurance premiums; overdraft lines of credit; and unsecured personal loans.