RBF Capital LLC Acquires New Position in Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS)

RBF Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 7,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $342,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Peoples Financial Services during the third quarter valued at approximately $149,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in Peoples Financial Services by 14.5% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 12,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Peoples Financial Services by 5.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,641 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225 shares during the period. Finally, Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Peoples Financial Services by 413.0% during the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 38,632 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 31,102 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 31.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Peoples Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Hovde Group increased their price target on shares of Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Performance

Shares of PFIS stock opened at $54.35 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.10. Peoples Financial Services Corp. has a 52 week low of $36.26 and a 52 week high of $59.70. 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 has a market cap of $542.96 million, a PE ratio of 52.77 and a beta of 0.55.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 EPS 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Peoples Financial Services Corp. will post 3.43 EPS for the current year.

Peoples Financial Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.618 per share. This represents a $2.47 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Peoples Financial Services’s payout ratio is 239.81%.

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.