Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) Short Interest Up 5.7% in August

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) saw a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,700 shares, a growth of 5.7% from the August 15th total of 3,500 shares. Currently, 0.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Finward Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FNWD. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Finward Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth $262,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Finward Bancorp by 257.6% in the 1st quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 354,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,729,000 after buying an additional 255,595 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Finward Bancorp by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,930,000 after buying an additional 5,206 shares during the last quarter. Black Maple Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Finward Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth $612,000. Finally, Global Financial Private Client LLC bought a new position in shares of Finward Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth $26,000. Institutional investors own 26.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Hovde Group upgraded shares of Finward Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th.

Finward Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ FNWD traded up $0.75 on Thursday, hitting $30.20. The stock had a trading volume of 2,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,642. Finward Bancorp has a 52-week low of $17.29 and a 52-week high of $30.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market capitalization of $130.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.46 and a 200-day moving average of $25.48.

Finward Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.12. Finward Bancorp had a net margin of 12.00% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The business had revenue of $24.70 million for the quarter. Equities analysts expect that Finward Bancorp will post 0.18 EPS for the current year.

Finward Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 19th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 19th. Finward Bancorp’s payout ratio is 13.33%.

About Finward Bancorp

Finward Bancorp operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides various banking products and services. The company's deposit products include non-interest- and interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificate accounts, and retirement savings plans.