How to buy Preferred Bank stock | 39.28

Preferred Bank is a banks—regional business based in the US. Preferred Bank shares (PFBC) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Preferred Bank employs 279 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$147.1 million.

How to buy shares in Preferred Bank

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 Preferred Bank. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: PFBC. 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 Preferred Bank 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$39.28, 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 Preferred Bank, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Preferred Bank. 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.

How has coronavirus impacted Preferred Bank's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Preferred Bank's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$39.28, which is 34.75% down on its pre-crash value of USD$60.2 and 96.01% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$20.04.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Preferred Bank shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$501.31 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$641.84.

Preferred Bank share price

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

Preferred Bank shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-11-26.

Latest market close	USD$39.28
52-week range	USD$19.5293 - USD$62.8548
50-day moving average	USD$35.8725
200-day moving average	USD$37.1961
Wall St. target price	USD$39
PE ratio	8.2654
Dividend yield	USD$1.2 (3.03%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$4.56

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Is it a good time to buy Preferred Bank 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 Preferred Bank 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.

Preferred Bank price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $39.28 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-17)	0.08%
1 month (2020-10-27)	14.19%
3 months (2020-08-25)	1.87%
6 months (2020-05-23)	N/A

1 year (2019-11-25)	-28.44%
2 years (2018-11-23)	-21.67%
3 years (2017-11-24)	-34.49%
5 years (2015-11-25)	9.08%

Is Preferred Bank under- or over-valued?

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

Preferred Bank's P/E ratio

Preferred Bank's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 8x. In other words, Preferred Bank shares trade at around 8x 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.

Preferred Bank's PEG ratio

Preferred Bank's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.83. 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 Preferred Bank's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Preferred Bank financials

Revenue TTM	USD$147.1 million
Operating margin TTM	65.18%
Gross profit TTM	USD$162.9 million
Return on assets TTM	1.42%
Return on equity TTM	14.17%
Profit margin	46.36%
Book value	$33.829
Market capitalisation	USD$580.6 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Preferred Bank shares

There are currently 679,227 Preferred Bank shares held short by investors – that's known as Preferred Bank's "short interest". This figure is 16.8% down from 816,044 last month.

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

Preferred Bank's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Preferred Bank's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Preferred Bank shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Preferred Bank shares traded daily (recently around 77625.942857143). Preferred Bank's SIR currently stands at 8.75. In other words for every 100,000 Preferred Bank shares traded daily on the market, roughly 8750 shares are currently held short.

However Preferred Bank's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Preferred Bank shares, or, against the total number of tradable Preferred Bank shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Preferred Bank's short interest could be expressed as 0.05% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Preferred Bank shares in existence, roughly 50 shares are currently held short) or 0.0504% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Preferred Bank shares, roughly 50 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Preferred Bank.

Find out more about how you can short Preferred Bank stock.

Preferred Bank share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 26.26% of net profits

Recently Preferred Bank has paid out, on average, around 26.26% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.03% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Preferred Bank shareholders could enjoy a 3.03% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Preferred Bank's case, that would currently equate to about $1.2 per share.

While Preferred Bank's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Preferred Bank may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Preferred Bank's most recent dividend payout was on 21 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 6 October 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Preferred Bank's shares ever split?

Preferred Bank's shares were split on a 1:5 basis on 20 June 2011. So if you had owned 5 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1 share. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Preferred Bank shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 400% higher share price could have impacted the market appetite for Preferred Bank shares which in turn could have impacted Preferred Bank's share price.

Preferred Bank share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Preferred Bank's shares have ranged in value from as little as $19.5293 up to $62.8548. 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 Preferred Bank's is 1.4566. This would suggest that Preferred Bank's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Preferred Bank overview

Preferred Bank provides various commercial banking products and services to small and mid-sized businesses and their owners, entrepreneurs, real estate developers and investors, professionals, and high net worth individuals in the United States. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts; fixed-rate and fixed maturity retail, and non-retail certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts. It also provides real estate mortgage loans that are secured by retail, industrial, office, special purpose, and residential single and multi-family properties; real estate construction loans; and commercial loans comprising lines of credit for working capital and term loans for capital expenditures, as well as equipment financing. In addition, the company offers trade finance services, including commercial and export letters of credit, import lines of credit, documentary collections, international wire transfers, export financing, bills purchase programs, and acceptances/trust receipt financing products, as well as standby letters of credit, and foreign exchange services for importers and exporters. Further, it provides various high-wealth banking services to wealthy individuals residing in the Pacific Rim area; and remote deposit capture, and online and mobile banking services. Additionally, the company offers various banking services to physicians, accountants, attorneys, business managers, and other professionals; and safe deposit boxes, account reconciliation, courier service, and cash management services to the manufacturing, service, and distribution companies. As of December 31, 2019, it had thirteen full-service branch offices in Alhambra, Arcadia, Century City, City of Industry, Diamond Bar, Los Angeles, Pico Rivera, San Francisco, Tarzana, Torrance, and Irvine, California; and Flushing, New York. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Preferred Bank is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 8.989% of Preferred Bank shares are held by insiders and 79.999% by institutions.

• How many people work for Preferred Bank?

  Latest data suggests 279 work at Preferred Bank.

• When does the fiscal year end for Preferred Bank?

  Preferred Bank's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Preferred Bank based?

  Preferred Bank's address is: 601 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90017

• What is Preferred Bank's ISIN number?

  Preferred Bank's international securities identification number is: US7403674044

• What is Preferred Bank's CUSIP number?

  Preferred Bank's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 740367107