Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Benchmark

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Benchmark to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Community West Bancshares in a report on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.17.

Community West Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CWBC opened at $26.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Community West Bancshares has a one year low of $19.78 and a one year high of $28.17. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $25.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.95. The company has a market capitalization of $715.15 million, a P/E ratio of 14.25 and a beta of 0.81.

Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $54.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.65 million. Community West Bancshares had a net margin of 16.86% and a return on equity of 10.12%. Analysts anticipate that Community West Bancshares will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Community West Bancshares

In other news, Director Jagroop Gill bought 4,770 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.88 per share, for a total transaction of $118,677.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 588,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,631,106.96. This trade represents a 0.82% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 5,374 shares of company stock valued at $133,078. 9.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Community West Bancshares

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CWBC. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Community West Bancshares in the second quarter worth $311,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new position in shares of Community West Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $485,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Community West Bancshares by 6.3% in the second quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 10,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,039,000. Finally, Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Community West Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $222,000. 33.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Community West Bancshares

Community West Bancshares is the bank holding company for Community West Bank, a California-based community bank headquartered in Goleta. Through its banking subsidiary, the company provides financial services to businesses, professionals, nonprofit organizations and individual customers.

Community West Bank offers business and personal deposit accounts, commercial and industrial lending, commercial real estate loans, construction financing, Small Business Administration loans and residential mortgage products.