Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) Short Interest Up 15.8% in November

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,400 shares, a growth of 15.8% from the October 31st total of 3,800 shares. Currently, 0.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Finward Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in Finward Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $329,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Finward Bancorp by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,237,000 after buying an additional 2,825 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Finward Bancorp by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,930,000 after buying an additional 5,206 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 26.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Hovde Group upgraded Finward Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, September 6th.

Finward Bancorp Stock Performance

Finward Bancorp stock traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $31.02. 3,564 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,898. Finward Bancorp has a 52 week low of $20.64 and a 52 week high of $33.50. The firm has a market cap of $133.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.04). Finward Bancorp had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 10.44%. The company had revenue of $14.87 million for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Finward Bancorp will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Finward Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Finward Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.84%.

About Finward Bancorp

Finward Bancorp operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides various banking products and services. The company’s deposit products include non-interest- and interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificate accounts, and retirement savings plans.