Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Sell

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on CWBC. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Community West Bancshares in a report on Friday, March 27th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of Community West Bancshares in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Zacks Research downgraded Community West Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Community West Bancshares from $30.00 to $30.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.17.

Community West Bancshares Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ CWBC opened at $23.99 on Friday. Community West Bancshares has a 12 month low of $17.50 and a 12 month high of $25.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $459.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $23.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.05.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.05. Community West Bancshares had a net margin of 20.77% and a return on equity of 10.60%. The company had revenue of $38.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.23 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Community West Bancshares will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Community West Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 8th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Community West Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 22.22%.

Institutional Trading of Community West Bancshares

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in Community West Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth $210,000. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares in the first quarter valued at $591,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Community West Bancshares by 42.5% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 21,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after acquiring an additional 6,369 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Community West Bancshares by 46.2% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 25,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $504,000 after acquiring an additional 8,173 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares during the second quarter worth about $485,000. Institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares, Inc is the bank holding company for Community West Bank, headquartered in Goleta, California. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, the company offers a full suite of commercial and consumer banking services. Community West Bancshares focuses on providing personalized financial solutions to small and mid-sized businesses, professional practices, and individual customers in its service area.

The company’s product portfolio includes a variety of deposit accounts—such as business checking, savings and money market accounts—along with online and mobile banking capabilities.