Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Short Interest Down 17.0% in September

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 272,400 shares, a drop of 17.0% from the September 15th total of 328,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 50,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Insider Activity

In other Community West Bancshares news, EVP Patrick A. Luis sold 1,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total transaction of $31,960.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $534,340.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Community West Bancshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bfsg LLC bought a new position in Community West Bancshares in the second quarter valued at $82,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Community West Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $106,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the third quarter worth about $132,000. Bridgewealth Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the second quarter worth about $226,000. Finally, Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Community West Bancshares during the second quarter valued at approximately $268,000. 33.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on CWBC. StockNews.com cut Community West Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.33.

Community West Bancshares Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CWBC traded up $0.22 during trading on Monday, hitting $18.63. 955 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 49,853. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $19.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.53. Community West Bancshares has a 52 week low of $15.22 and a 52 week high of $24.47. The company has a market cap of $351.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.74 and a beta of 0.86.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $30.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.14 million. Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 9.99% and a net margin of 7.51%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Community West Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 2nd. Community West Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.40%.

About Community West Bancshares

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.