Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.12 Per Share

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. This is an increase from Community West Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Community West Bancshares has increased its dividend by an average of 24.9% annually over the last three years. Community West Bancshares has a payout ratio of 11.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Community West Bancshares to earn $2.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Community West Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CWBC opened at $18.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.04. Community West Bancshares has a 1 year low of $12.59 and a 1 year high of $24.47. The company has a market capitalization of $161.27 million, a P/E ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 0.85.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.02). Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 20.04%. The firm had revenue of $22.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.86 million. On average, analysts expect that Community West Bancshares will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on CWBC. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Community West Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com started coverage on Community West Bancshares in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, TheStreet cut Community West Bancshares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Community West Bancshares

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CWBC. Royal Bank of Canada bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at $90,000. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the first quarter valued at $165,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the first quarter valued at $214,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at $237,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Community West Bancshares by 44.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 5,343 shares during the period. 33.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.