Royal Bank of Canada Raises Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) Price Target to $21.00

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) had its price target boosted by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the savings and loans company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 12.60% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on PFS. DA Davidson raised Provident Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Provident Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Provident Financial Services has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.25.

Provident Financial Services Price Performance

PFS traded down $0.36 on Monday, hitting $18.65. 290,241 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 957,594. Provident Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $13.07 and a fifty-two week high of $19.18. The stock has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $14.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The savings and loans company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.39). The business had revenue of $141.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.60 million. Provident Financial Services had a return on equity of 4.95% and a net margin of 9.38%. The business’s revenue was up 42.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Provident Financial Services will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Provident Financial Services by 56.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,612,246 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $23,136,000 after purchasing an additional 582,844 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Provident Financial Services during the fourth quarter worth $9,419,000. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Provident Financial Services in the fourth quarter valued at $5,873,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Provident Financial Services in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,927,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Provident Financial Services during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,722,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.97% of the company’s stock.

About Provident Financial Services

Provident Financial Services, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Provident Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts, as well as IRA products.