Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) Director Sells $410,184.60 in Stock

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. (NYSE:MCB) Director Robert Patent sold 4,445 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.28, for a total value of $410,184.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 84,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,773,667.20. The trade was a 5.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Metropolitan Bank Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of MCB traded down $0.96 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $88.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 125,286 shares, compared to its average volume of 145,330. The business has a fifty day moving average of $78.75 and a 200 day moving average of $75.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. has a 1 year low of $47.08 and a 1 year high of $96.75. The company has a market cap of $915.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.36 and a beta of 1.13.

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The company reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.70. The company had revenue of $88.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $83.15 million. Metropolitan Bank had a net margin of 13.49% and a return on equity of 9.73%. As a group, analysts forecast that Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. will post 7.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Metropolitan Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 27th. This is a positive change from Metropolitan Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Metropolitan Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.02%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Metropolitan Bank

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MCB. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Metropolitan Bank by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 69,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,226,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Metropolitan Bank by 3.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $350,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC grew its position in Metropolitan Bank by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 18,247 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Metropolitan Bank by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,502 shares of the company’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Metropolitan Bank by 7.7% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $396,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. 79.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on MCB shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Metropolitan Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Metropolitan Bank in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Metropolitan Bank from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.00.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB), through its principal subsidiary Metropolitan Commercial Bank, operates as a New York–based regional financial institution providing a range of commercial and consumer banking services. The company offers deposit products including checking, savings and money market accounts, as well as business and personal certificates of deposit. On the lending side, Metropolitan Bank extends commercial real estate financing, equipment loans, working capital lines of credit and consumer installment loans tailored to the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises and individual customers.

In addition to traditional deposit and lending services, Metropolitan Bank provides specialized treasury and cash-management solutions, foreign exchange services and letters of credit for both domestic businesses and multinational clients.