Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Cut to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday.

CWBC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. TheStreet cut Community West Bancshares from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Community West Bancshares from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $20.33.

Community West Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ:CWBC opened at $17.97 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $160.11 million, a P/E ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 0.85. Community West Bancshares has a 12 month low of $12.59 and a 12 month high of $24.47. The business’s 50-day moving average is $16.07 and its 200 day moving average is $15.16.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.19). Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 20.04%. The company had revenue of $11.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.60 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Community West Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a positive change from Community West Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Community West Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.40%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Community West Bancshares

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Community West Bancshares stock. Black Maple Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,417 shares during the period. Black Maple Capital Management LP owned approximately 0.20% of Community West Bancshares worth $304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

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.