How to buy Northwest Bancshares stock | $12.26

Northwest Bancshares, Inc is a banks-regional business based in the US. Northwest Bancshares shares (NWBI) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Northwest Bancshares employs 2,523 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$411.7 million.

How to buy shares in Northwest Bancshares

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Northwest Bancshares. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: NWBI. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Northwest Bancshares reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$12.26, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Northwest Bancshares, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Northwest Bancshares. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Northwest Bancshares share price

Use our graph to track the performance of NWBI stocks over time.

Northwest Bancshares shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-25.

Latest market close	USD$12.26
52-week range	USD$8.2137 - USD$15.6822
50-day moving average	USD$12.086
200-day moving average	USD$10.5355
Wall St. target price	USD$13
PE ratio	22.0562
Dividend yield	USD$0.76 (6.05%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.569

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Is it a good time to buy Northwest Bancshares stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Northwest Bancshares, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Northwest Bancshares price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $12.26 from 2020-12-18

1 week (2021-01-08)	-11.54%
1 month (2020-12-16)	-0.89%
3 months (2020-10-15)	20.31%
6 months (2020-07-15)	22.23%

1 year (2020-01-15)	-25.20%
2 years (2019-01-15)	-30.70%
3 years (2018-01-12)	16.97
5 years (2016-01-15)	12.29

Is Northwest Bancshares under- or over-valued?

Valuing Northwest Bancshares stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Northwest Bancshares's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Northwest Bancshares's P/E ratio

Northwest Bancshares's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 22x. In other words, Northwest Bancshares shares trade at around 22x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Northwest Bancshares's PEG ratio

Northwest Bancshares's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.87. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Northwest Bancshares's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Northwest Bancshares financials

Revenue TTM	USD$411.7 million
Operating margin TTM	25.62%
Gross profit TTM	USD$437.2 million
Return on assets TTM	0.54%
Return on equity TTM	4.51%
Profit margin	15.88%
Book value	$12.107
Market capitalisation	USD$1.6 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Northwest Bancshares shares

There are currently 2.3 million Northwest Bancshares shares held short by investors – that's known as Northwest Bancshares's "short interest". This figure is 3.2% down from 2.3 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Northwest Bancshares shares can be evaluated.

Northwest Bancshares's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Northwest Bancshares's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Northwest Bancshares shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Northwest Bancshares shares traded daily (recently around 568387.43718593). Northwest Bancshares's SIR currently stands at 3.98. In other words for every 100,000 Northwest Bancshares shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3980 shares are currently held short.

However Northwest Bancshares's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Northwest Bancshares shares, or, against the total number of tradable Northwest Bancshares shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Northwest Bancshares's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Northwest Bancshares shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0239% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Northwest Bancshares shares, roughly 24 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Northwest Bancshares.

Find out more about how you can short Northwest Bancshares stock.

Northwest Bancshares share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 82.74% of net profits

Recently Northwest Bancshares has paid out, on average, around 82.74% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 6.05% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Northwest Bancshares shareholders could enjoy a 6.05% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Northwest Bancshares's case, that would currently equate to about $0.76 per share.

Northwest Bancshares's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Northwest Bancshares's most recent dividend payout was on 16 November 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 4 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Northwest Bancshares's shares ever split?

Northwest Bancshares's shares were split on a 225:100 basis on 18 December 2009. So if you had owned 100 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 225 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Northwest Bancshares shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 55.6% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Northwest Bancshares shares which in turn could have impacted Northwest Bancshares's share price.

Northwest Bancshares share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Northwest Bancshares's shares have ranged in value from as little as $8.2137 up to $15.6822. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Northwest Bancshares's is 0.6488. This would suggest that Northwest Bancshares's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Northwest Bancshares overview

Northwest Bancshares, Inc. operates as a holding company for Northwest Bank that offers various personal and business banking solutions. The company accepts various deposits, such as checking, savings, money market deposit, term certificate, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan products include one-to-four family residential real estate, short-term consumer, multi-family residential and commercial real estate, commercial business, and residential mortgage loans; home equity lines of credit; and consumer loans comprising automobile, sales finance, unsecured personal, and credit card loans, as well as loans secured by deposit accounts. The company also offers investment management and trust services; and employee benefits, and property and casualty insurance As of December 31, 2019, it operated 181 community-banking locations in central and western Pennsylvania, western New York, and eastern Ohio. Northwest Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in Warren, Pennsylvania.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Northwest Bancshares is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 5.3% of Northwest Bancshares shares are held by insiders and 65.809% by institutions.

• How many people work for Northwest Bancshares?

  Latest data suggests 2,523 work at Northwest Bancshares.

• When does the fiscal year end for Northwest Bancshares?

  Northwest Bancshares's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Northwest Bancshares based?

  Northwest Bancshares's address is: 100 Liberty Street, Warren, PA, United States, 16365

• What is Northwest Bancshares's ISIN number?

  Northwest Bancshares's international securities identification number is: US6673401039

• What is Northwest Bancshares's CUSIP number?

  Northwest Bancshares's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 667328108