Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS) saw an uptick in trading volume on Wednesday. 94,292 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 78% from the average daily volume of 52,872 shares. The stock last traded at $74.9220 and had previously closed at $72.90.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on PFIS. Zacks Research upgraded Peoples Financial Services to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Peoples Financial Services in a report on Friday, September 4th. Finally, Hovde Group raised their price target on shares of Peoples Financial Services from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.50.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $747.45 million, a PE ratio of 12.38 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.36.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.19. Peoples Financial Services had a return on equity of 11.76% and a net margin of 20.51%. The company had revenue of $52.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.80 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Peoples Financial Services Corp. will post 6.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Peoples Financial Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.6250 per share. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 30th. Peoples Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is 41.39%.

Institutional Trading of Peoples Financial Services

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 316,621 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,886,000 after acquiring an additional 17,655 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Peoples Financial Services in the second quarter worth approximately $3,494,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Peoples Financial Services in the second quarter worth approximately $3,987,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Peoples Financial Services in the second quarter valued at approximately $49,412,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Peoples Financial Services during the second quarter valued at approximately $917,000. 31.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Peoples Financial Services Company Profile

Peoples Financial Services Corp. is the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company, a community banking institution headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The bank provides financial services to individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations and municipal customers.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, residential and commercial real estate loans, consumer lending, business loans, lines of credit and other treasury-management services.