Its Stock Has Paid Off Big Time For Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp.

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. (NYSE: MCB) stock jumped 3.57% on Tuesday to $28.45 against a previous-day closing price of $27.47. With 0.66 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 0.66 million shares. During the session, the Banks – Regional company that operates in wider Financial sector, reached to the highest price of $31.44 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $27.51. The 52-week range on MCB shows that it touched its highest point at $80.37 and its lowest point at $13.98 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $62.00. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.04.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of MCB was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 25.16%, but this was down by -14.20% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -49.96% while six-month performance fell -57.71%. The stock lost -61.40% in the past year, while it has lost -51.51% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for MCB yields 5.84 with Next year EPS estimates of 7.88. For the next quarter, that number is 1.73. This implies an EPS growth rate of -17.90% for this year and 4.24% for next year.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 11.04 million MCB shares are outstanding with a float of 10.46 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 1.43 million, which was 12.72% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Mark R. DeFazio as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Gregory A. Sigrist CPA serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 80.27% of MCB’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 45.59% of MCB, in contrast to 35.97% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 15.58%. As the largest shareholder in MCB with 7.94% of the stake, Fidelity Management & Research Co holds 870,560 shares worth 870,560. A second-largest stockholder of MCB, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 776,333 shares, controlling over 7.08% of the firm’s shares. Macquarie Investment Management B is the third largest shareholder in MCB, holding 760,540 shares or 6.94% stake. With a 5.08% stake in MCB, the T Rowe Price Small Cap Value Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 556,523 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Delaware Small Cap Value Fund, which owns about 5.07% of MCB stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 555,805 shares valued at 17.84 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF holds 2.84% of the stake in MCB, owning 311,071 shares worth 9.98 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for MCB since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With MCB analysts setting a high price target of $62.00 and a low target of $44.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $53.00. Based on these targets, MCB could surge 117.93% to reach the target high and rise by 54.66% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 86.29% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded MCB stock several times over the past three months with 43 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 136,457 shares were bought while 10,118 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 57 while that of sell transactions has risen to 16 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 191,120 while 36,867 shares were sold.