How to buy Provident Financial stock

Provident Financial Holdings, Inc is a banks-regional business based in the US. Provident Financial shares (PROV) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Provident Financial employs 163 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$38.1 million.

How to buy shares in Provident Financial

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 Provident Financial. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: PROV. 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 Provident Financial 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. 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 Provident Financial, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Provident Financial. 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.

Provident Financial share price

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

Provident Financial shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-01-13.

52-week range	USD$11.4 - USD$21.8756
50-day moving average	USD$15.3321
200-day moving average	USD$13.318
Wall St. target price	USD$16.67
PE ratio	19.5791
Dividend yield	USD$0.56 (3.31%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.879

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Is it a good time to buy Provident Financial 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 Provident Financial Holdings, 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.

Is Provident Financial under- or over-valued?

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

Provident Financial's P/E ratio

Provident Financial's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 20x. In other words, Provident Financial shares trade at around 20x 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.

Provident Financial financials

Revenue TTM	USD$38.1 million
Operating margin TTM	25.75%
Gross profit TTM	USD$39.8 million
Return on assets TTM	0.58%
Return on equity TTM	5.36%
Profit margin	17.37%
Book value	$16.752
Market capitalisation	USD$128.1 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Provident Financial shares

There are currently 38,430 Provident Financial shares held short by investors – that's known as Provident Financial's "short interest". This figure is 8.5% down from 41,978 last month.

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

Provident Financial's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Provident Financial's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Provident Financial shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Provident Financial shares traded daily (recently around 15129.921259843). Provident Financial's SIR currently stands at 2.54. In other words for every 100,000 Provident Financial shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2540 shares are currently held short.

However Provident Financial's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Provident Financial shares, or, against the total number of tradable Provident Financial shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Provident Financial's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Provident Financial shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0064% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Provident Financial shares, roughly 6 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 Provident Financial.

Find out more about how you can short Provident Financial stock.

Provident Financial share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 64.37% of net profits

Recently Provident Financial has paid out, on average, around 64.37% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.31% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Provident Financial shareholders could enjoy a 3.31% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Provident Financial's case, that would currently equate to about $0.56 per share.

Provident Financial'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.

Provident Financial's most recent dividend payout was on 10 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 18 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Provident Financial's shares ever split?

Provident Financial's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 3 February 2004. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Provident Financial shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Provident Financial shares which in turn could have impacted Provident Financial's share price.

Provident Financial share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Provident Financial's shares have ranged in value from as little as $11.4 up to $21.8756. 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 Provident Financial's is 0.6213. This would suggest that Provident Financial's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Provident Financial overview

Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. operates as the holding company for Provident Savings Bank, F.S.B. that provides community banking services to consumers and small to mid-sized businesses in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Its deposit products include checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as time deposits; and loan portfolio consists of multi-family, commercial real estate, construction, commercial business, and consumer loans. The company also offers investment services comprising the sale of investment products, such as annuities and mutual funds; and trustee services for real estate transactions. It operates through 12 full-service banking offices in Riverside County and 1 full-service banking office in San Bernardino County. The company was founded in 1956 and is based in Riverside, California.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Provident Financial is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 25.545% of Provident Financial shares are held by insiders and 60.217% by institutions.

• How many people work for Provident Financial?

  Latest data suggests 163 work at Provident Financial.

• When does the fiscal year end for Provident Financial?

  Provident Financial's fiscal year ends in June.

• Where is Provident Financial based?

  Provident Financial's address is: 3756 Central Avenue, Riverside, CA, United States, 92506

• What is Provident Financial's ISIN number?

  Provident Financial's international securities identification number is: US7438681014

• What is Provident Financial's CUSIP number?

  Provident Financial's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 743868101