Community West Bancshares to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.12 (NASDAQ:CWBC)

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th.

Community West Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 27.5% per year over the last three years. Community West Bancshares has a payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.2%.

Community West Bancshares Trading Up 1.7 %

CWBC traded up $0.33 during trading on Friday, reaching $19.20. 38,256 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 40,277. Community West Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $15.50 and a fifty-two week high of $24.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $363.84 million, a PE ratio of 29.09 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $20.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.72.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.07). Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 8.14% and a net margin of 4.53%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert Bartlein acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $18.75 per share, for a total transaction of $37,500.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 433,876 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,135,175. The trade was a 0.46 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Steven D. Mcdonald sold 1,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.51, for a total value of $40,008.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 315,531 shares in the company, valued at $6,787,071.81. The trade was a 0.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 2,432 shares of company stock worth $45,616 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Community West Bancshares from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday.

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.