Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

PFS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Provident Financial Services from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Provident Financial Services from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.00.

Provident Financial Services Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of PFS stock traded up $0.04 on Thursday, hitting $21.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 491,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 873,326. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Provident Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $13.07 and a fifty-two week high of $22.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $19.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51 and a beta of 1.03.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The savings and loans company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.11). Provident Financial Services had a net margin of 9.55% and a return on equity of 5.21%. The business had revenue of $349.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.25 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Provident Financial Services will post 1.84 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Provident Financial Services

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFS. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Provident Financial Services by 4,245.5% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 3,996,954 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $56,877,000 after acquiring an additional 3,904,975 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Provident Financial Services by 51.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,787,088 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $111,740,000 after acquiring an additional 2,649,643 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Provident Financial Services by 13,182.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,854,596 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $34,421,000 after buying an additional 1,840,633 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its position in Provident Financial Services by 125.3% in the second quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,690,155 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $24,254,000 after buying an additional 939,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Provident Financial Services by 10.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,683,467 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $142,605,000 after buying an additional 713,688 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.97% of the company’s stock.

About Provident Financial Services

Provident Financial Services, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Provident Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts, as well as IRA products.