Community West Bancshares (CWBC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12 on May 17th

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a boost from Community West Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Community West Bancshares has raised its dividend by an average of 24.9% per year over the last three years. Community West Bancshares has a payout ratio of 11.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Community West Bancshares Trading Down 1.6 %

CWBC stock traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $18.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 114,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 82,499. The company has a market cap of $161.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $15.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Community West Bancshares has a 12 month low of $12.59 and a 12 month high of $24.47.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $22.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.86 million. Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 20.04%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Community West Bancshares will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada purchased a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the first quarter valued at approximately $165,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the first quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $237,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Community West Bancshares by 44.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 5,343 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CWBC. StockNews.com began coverage on Community West Bancshares in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded Community West Bancshares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares operates as the bank holding company for Community West Bank, N.A. that provides various financial products and services in California. The company offers deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and fixed rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposits; and cash management products.