Jane Street Group LLC Purchases 6,056 Shares of Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC)

Jane Street Group LLC grew its holdings in Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) by 43.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,879 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,056 shares during the quarter. Jane Street Group LLC’s holdings in Preferred Bank were worth $1,595,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Preferred Bank by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 680,337 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $51,357,000 after buying an additional 4,539 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Preferred Bank by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 592,566 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,553,000 after buying an additional 2,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Preferred Bank by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 415,722 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,362,000 after acquiring an additional 7,086 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its position in Preferred Bank by 121.0% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 171,330 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,934,000 after acquiring an additional 93,815 shares during the period. Finally, Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in Preferred Bank by 7.4% during the second quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 98,591 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,443,000 after acquiring an additional 6,809 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.77% of the company’s stock.

Preferred Bank Price Performance

Shares of PFBC stock opened at $87.34 on Friday. Preferred Bank has a 12 month low of $66.88 and a 12 month high of $99.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.75 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $90.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $82.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.07. Preferred Bank had a net margin of 26.20% and a return on equity of 19.01%. The company had revenue of $132.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.80 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Preferred Bank will post 9.75 EPS for the current year.

Preferred Bank Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. This is an increase from Preferred Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Preferred Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.06%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stephens downgraded shares of Preferred Bank from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

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.