Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The company traded as high as $56.00 and last traded at $56.00, with a volume of 3844 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $54.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on PFIS shares. Hovde Group boosted their price objective on shares of Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com raised Peoples Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Peoples Financial Services Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $564.34 million, a P/E ratio of 54.85 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.04.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.56. Peoples Financial Services had a net margin of 3.00% and a return on equity of 7.73%. The business had revenue of $74.01 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Peoples Financial Services Corp. will post 3.43 EPS for the current year.

Peoples Financial Services Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.618 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $2.47 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.38%. Peoples Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 239.81%.

Institutional Trading of Peoples Financial Services

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PFIS. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 87.7% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Peoples Financial Services in the third quarter valued at about $149,000. RBF Capital LLC acquired a new position in Peoples Financial Services in the third quarter valued at about $342,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Peoples Financial Services by 2.6% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 8,749 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Peoples Financial Services by 46.7% during the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 10,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $460,000 after buying an additional 3,409 shares in the last quarter. 31.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Peoples Financial Services

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.