Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Sells 6,117 Shares of Community Financial System, Inc. $CBU

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP reduced its stake in Community Financial System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU) by 60.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,937 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 6,117 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Community Financial System were worth $224,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Community Financial System by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 834,490 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,449,000 after purchasing an additional 3,103 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Community Financial System by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 677,841 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,809,000 after buying an additional 145,172 shares during the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Community Financial System during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,368,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Community Financial System by 80.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 339,696 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,315,000 after purchasing an additional 151,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Community Financial System by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 262,245 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,911,000 after purchasing an additional 7,376 shares in the last quarter. 73.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Community Financial System from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Community Financial System from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Community Financial System Trading Up 5.4%

CBU opened at $60.2960 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.43 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $56.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.30. Community Financial System, Inc. has a 1-year low of $49.44 and a 1-year high of $73.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Community Financial System (NYSE:CBU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $199.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $201.93 million. Community Financial System had a net margin of 19.91% and a return on equity of 10.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Community Financial System, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Community Financial System Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This is an increase from Community Financial System’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. Community Financial System’s dividend payout ratio is 50.14%.

About Community Financial System

Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, institutional, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.