CVB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CVBF) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

CVB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CVBF) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 11,687,411 shares, a growth of 32.7% from the March 15th total of 8,810,665 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,638,974 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.1 days. Approximately 9.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CVBF. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of CVB Financial from $21.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CVB Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CVB Financial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.17.

CVB Financial Price Performance

CVBF traded up $0.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $20.93. 278,404 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,395,428. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. CVB Financial has a 12-month low of $17.45 and a 12-month high of $21.48. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.46. The company has a market cap of $2.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.94 and a beta of 0.65.

CVB Financial (NASDAQ:CVBF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CVB Financial had a net margin of 32.28% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The business had revenue of $133.85 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $135.45 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that CVB Financial will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

CVB Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. CVB Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of CVB Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $251,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of CVB Financial by 35.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 532,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,902,000 after purchasing an additional 138,661 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of CVB Financial by 418.2% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 91,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 74,169 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in shares of CVB Financial by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 20,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 4,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VARCOV Co. purchased a new position in shares of CVB Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $991,000. 74.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CVB Financial Company Profile

CVB Financial Corp is the bank holding company for Citizens Business Bank, a California-based commercial bank whose operations trace back to 1974. Headquartered in Ontario, California, the company provides a broad range of banking and financial services through its community-focused branch network. As a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the symbol CVBF, CVB Financial oversees strategic planning, corporate governance and long-term growth initiatives for its subsidiary.

The company’s core business activities include commercial lending, real estate financing, equipment leasing and Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs.