Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Position in Preferred Bank $PFBC

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,000 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $453,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 494,827 shares of the bank’s stock worth $46,727,000 after purchasing an additional 16,348 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC grew its stake in Preferred Bank by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 356,065 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,623,000 after acquiring an additional 18,309 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Preferred Bank by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 206,622 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,511,000 after purchasing an additional 33,124 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Preferred Bank by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 199,419 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,831,000 after acquiring an additional 33,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in Preferred Bank by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 144,588 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,957,000 after purchasing an additional 28,268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFBC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings raised Preferred Bank from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Preferred Bank from $105.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.00.

Preferred Bank Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of PFBC opened at $103.17 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.26. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.66 and a beta of 0.55. Preferred Bank has a one year low of $81.50 and a one year high of $112.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $2.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.05. Preferred Bank had a return on equity of 17.52% and a net margin of 26.49%.The company had revenue of $69.62 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.76 million. Research analysts forecast that Preferred Bank will post 10.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Preferred Bank Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 21st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be given a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. Preferred Bank’s payout ratio is currently 29.96%.

Preferred Bank Company Profile

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ: PFBC) is a California-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Los Angeles. The institution offers a full range of banking products and services to businesses and individuals, with a particular emphasis on commercial real estate lending, business banking, treasury management and deposit accounts. Preferred Bank operates through branch offices across Southern California and national loan production offices in major U.S. markets.

The bank’s core lending portfolio focuses on commercial real estate acquisition, development and investment properties.