Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Short Interest Down 22.7% in March

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 46,600 shares, a decrease of 22.7% from the February 29th total of 60,300 shares. Approximately 0.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 15,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Community West Bancshares by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,337,000 after purchasing an additional 4,986 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Community West Bancshares by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 115,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 844 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Strategic Partners LLC purchased a new position in Community West Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $544,000. Black Maple Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Community West Bancshares by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Black Maple Capital Management LP now owns 17,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada purchased a new position in Community West Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $90,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, TheStreet downgraded Community West Bancshares from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

Community West Bancshares Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CWBC traded up $0.22 on Friday, hitting $15.48. The company had a trading volume of 16,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,215. Community West Bancshares has a 12-month low of $10.38 and a 12-month high of $17.66. The business has a 50 day moving average of $14.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $137.00 million, a P/E ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.67.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.19). Community West Bancshares had a return on equity of 6.40% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company had revenue of $11.02 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.60 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Community West Bancshares will post 1.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Community West Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Community West Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.51%.

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.