Squarepoint Ops LLC Has $281,000 Stake in Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU)

Squarepoint Ops LLC reduced its stake in shares of Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU) by 68.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,944 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 13,125 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Community Bank System were worth $281,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CBU. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Community Bank System by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,770,648 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $83,588,000 after buying an additional 142,909 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Community Bank System by 164.9% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 213,167 shares of the bank’s stock worth $10,064,000 after purchasing an additional 132,697 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Community Bank System by 152.9% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 182,397 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,611,000 after purchasing an additional 110,288 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Community Bank System by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 814,362 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,436,000 after purchasing an additional 107,285 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Community Bank System in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,558,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CBU. Raymond James downgraded shares of Community Bank System from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $59.00 target price on shares of Community Bank System in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.50.

Community Bank System Stock Performance

Shares of CBU stock opened at $59.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a PE ratio of 18.79 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.38 and a 200-day moving average of $51.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Community Bank System, Inc. has a one year low of $35.38 and a one year high of $63.95.

Community Bank System (NYSE:CBU) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $183.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.05 million. Community Bank System had a net margin of 15.90% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Community Bank System, Inc. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Community Bank System Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This is an increase from Community Bank System’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Community Bank System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.86%.

About Community Bank System

Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, institutional, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.