Flushing Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FFIC) Short Interest Update

Flushing Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FFIC) saw a significant increase in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 720,100 shares, an increase of 15.9% from the July 31st total of 621,200 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 186,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FFIC. StockNews.com lowered Flushing Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Flushing Financial from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Piper Sandler cut Flushing Financial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $15.00 to $16.50 in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Flushing Financial from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Maria A. Grasso sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.49, for a total value of $60,705.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 83,238 shares in the company, valued at $1,122,880.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 6.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Flushing Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIC. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Flushing Financial by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,217 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 4,476 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flushing Financial in the fourth quarter worth $307,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flushing Financial in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Flushing Financial by 290.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 114,404 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,443,000 after acquiring an additional 85,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, YHB Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Flushing Financial during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. 67.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Flushing Financial Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIC traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $14.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 77,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 185,158. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $13.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.86. Flushing Financial has a 1 year low of $10.74 and a 1 year high of $18.00. The firm has a market cap of $424.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.60 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The bank reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18. Flushing Financial had a net margin of 5.84% and a return on equity of 3.96%. The company had revenue of $117.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $46.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Flushing Financial will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

Flushing Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.03%. Flushing Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.00%.

About Flushing Financial

Flushing Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Flushing Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to consumers, businesses, and governmental units. It offers various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, non-interest bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit.