Customers Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:CUBI) Short Interest Down 9.3% in August

Customers Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:CUBI) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,730,000 shares, a decrease of 9.3% from the August 15th total of 3,010,000 shares. Approximately 9.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 459,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Customers Bancorp Stock Performance

CUBI traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $48.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 374,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 360,993. Customers Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $31.16 and a fifty-two week high of $68.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of 6.77 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.18.

Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.06. Customers Bancorp had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 17.38%. The firm had revenue of $198.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $184.40 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Customers Bancorp will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Customers Bancorp

In other news, CEO Samvir S. Sidhu acquired 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $45.53 per share, for a total transaction of $113,825.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 144,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,579,267.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 6.92% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Customers Bancorp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CUBI. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in Customers Bancorp by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 14,300 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $686,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Customers Bancorp by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 20,723 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $994,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in Customers Bancorp by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 24,765 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,314,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Customers Bancorp by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 5,763 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in Customers Bancorp by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,850 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. 89.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. B. Riley upped their price objective on Customers Bancorp from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Hovde Group cut Customers Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, August 9th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Customers Bancorp from $71.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Customers Bancorp from $76.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Customers Bancorp from $56.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.50.

Customers Bancorp Company Profile

Customers Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Customers Bank that provides financial products and services to individual consumers, and small and middle market businesses. The company provides deposit banking products, which includes commercial and consumer checking, non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing demand, MMDA, savings, and time deposit accounts.