Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Peoples Financial Services Price Performance

PFIS opened at $46.88 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.47. The firm has a market cap of $330.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38 and a beta of 0.51. Peoples Financial Services has a twelve month low of $36.26 and a twelve month high of $51.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $41.92 million for the quarter. Peoples Financial Services had a net margin of 10.07% and a return on equity of 5.93%. Equities research analysts expect that Peoples Financial Services will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Financial Services Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a $0.618 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $2.47 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. This is a boost from Peoples Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Peoples Financial Services’s payout ratio is currently 75.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Richard S. Lochen, Jr. purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $43.90 per share, for a total transaction of $43,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 15,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,864.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders bought a total of 1,604 shares of company stock worth $73,008 over the last ninety days. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Peoples Financial Services

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PFIS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 322,786 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,915,000 after buying an additional 6,776 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 191,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,740,000 after purchasing an additional 9,122 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 19.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 47,178 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 7,831 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 26,612 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,925 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 12,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after acquiring an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 31.67% of the company’s stock.

Peoples Financial Services Company Profile

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts.