Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU) Short Interest Down 8.0% in September

Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE:CBU) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,260,000 shares, a decrease of 8.0% from the August 31st total of 1,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 306,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.1 days. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CBU. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Community Bank System by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,596,018 shares of the bank’s stock worth $343,718,000 after acquiring an additional 43,001 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Community Bank System by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,770,648 shares of the bank’s stock worth $83,588,000 after purchasing an additional 142,909 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Community Bank System by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 814,362 shares of the bank’s stock worth $42,436,000 after buying an additional 107,285 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Community Bank System by 6.8% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 691,879 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,664,000 after buying an additional 44,137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Community Bank System in the fourth quarter worth about $30,870,000. Institutional investors own 73.79% of the company’s stock.

Community Bank System Price Performance

CBU stock traded down $1.70 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $56.38. 176,653 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 288,906. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.84. The company has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73 and a beta of 0.64. Community Bank System has a one year low of $35.38 and a one year high of $63.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Community Bank System (NYSE:CBU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $183.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.05 million. Community Bank System had a net margin of 15.90% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Community Bank System will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Community Bank System Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.46 dividend. This is a positive change from Community Bank System’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Community Bank System’s payout ratio is 57.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CBU has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James lowered shares of Community Bank System from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Community Bank System in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.50.

About Community Bank System

Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, institutional, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.