Community West Bancshares to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12 (NASDAQ:CWBC)

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 16th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd.

Community West Bancshares has increased its dividend by an average of 27.5% per year over the last three years. Community West Bancshares has a payout ratio of 22.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.41 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.9%.

Community West Bancshares Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Community West Bancshares stock opened at $17.39 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $17.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Community West Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $15.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.89. The firm has a market cap of $331.47 million, a P/E ratio of 33.44 and a beta of 0.78.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.02). Community West Bancshares had a net margin of 4.59% and a return on equity of 7.90%. The firm had revenue of $34.79 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.05 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Community West Bancshares

In other Community West Bancshares news, Director Robert Bartlein bought 2,001 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $17.19 per share, for a total transaction of $34,397.19. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 440,877 shares in the company, valued at $7,578,675.63. This represents a 0.46 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Martin E. Plourd sold 7,732 shares of Community West Bancshares stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.26, for a total value of $148,918.32. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 82,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,593,514.62. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 8,806 shares of company stock valued at $156,205. Corporate insiders own 10.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Community West Bancshares from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com raised Community West Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on Community West Bancshares from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Community West Bancshares Company Profile

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.