Donald Smith & CO. Inc. Buys New Position in Waterstone Financial, Inc. $WSBF

Donald Smith & CO. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Waterstone Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBF) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 127,770 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,115,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of WSBF. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Waterstone Financial by 557.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,590 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Waterstone Financial during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Waterstone Financial during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Simplex Trading LLC boosted its stake in Waterstone Financial by 69.3% during the fourth quarter. Simplex Trading LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Waterstone Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $126,000. Institutional investors own 62.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WSBF shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Waterstone Financial in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Waterstone Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, Waterstone Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Waterstone Financial Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NASDAQ WSBF opened at $19.36 on Thursday. Waterstone Financial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.08 and a 12 month high of $19.58. The company has a market cap of $349.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.66 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.68.

Waterstone Financial (NASDAQ:WSBF) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The savings and loans company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.32). Waterstone Financial had a net margin of 14.28% and a return on equity of 8.48%. The company had revenue of $35.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $65.80 million.

Waterstone Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 8th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Waterstone Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 8th. Waterstone Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.96%.

Insider Activity at Waterstone Financial

In other news, CFO Mark Raymond Gerke sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.34, for a total transaction of $183,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 30,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $550,823.56. This represents a 24.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 6.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Waterstone Financial Profile

Waterstone Financial, Inc is a bank holding company based in Glendale, Wisconsin, that provides a broad range of financial services to individuals, businesses and institutions. Its primary operations are conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary, Waterstone Bank, which offers deposit products, loan facilities and treasury management services. The company focuses on delivering relationship-based banking solutions tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as retail customers.

In addition to traditional commercial and consumer banking, Waterstone Financial supports its clients with specialized financing, including real estate, equipment and asset-based lending.