Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI) Short Interest Update

Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISI - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 49,200 shares, a decline of 22.0% from the October 31st total of 63,100 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 39,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Financial Institutions

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 408.0% during the third quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,771,516 shares of the bank's stock valued at $45,121,000 after buying an additional 1,422,765 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 2.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 784,928 shares of the bank's stock valued at $14,772,000 after buying an additional 16,462 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,685 shares of the bank's stock valued at $9,036,000 after buying an additional 7,045 shares during the last quarter. Courier Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 2.4% during the third quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 350,239 shares of the bank's stock valued at $8,921,000 after buying an additional 8,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Financial Institutions by 9.0% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 332,500 shares of the bank's stock valued at $6,424,000 after buying an additional 27,400 shares during the last quarter. 60.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Financial Institutions from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Financial Institutions Price Performance

Shares of FISI stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.16. The stock had a trading volume of 25,409 shares, compared to its average volume of 50,581. Financial Institutions has a one year low of $16.29 and a one year high of $29.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $25.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $420.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 0.90.

Financial Institutions (NASDAQ:FISI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.08. Financial Institutions had a return on equity of 11.32% and a net margin of 13.72%. The firm had revenue of $50.12 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Financial Institutions will post 3.6 EPS for the current year.

Financial Institutions Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.42%. Financial Institutions's payout ratio is currently 37.74%.

About Financial Institutions

Financial Institutions, Inc operates as a holding company for the Five Star Bank, a chartered bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals, municipalities, and businesses in New York. The company provides checking and savings account programs, including money market accounts, certificates of deposit, sweep investments, and individual retirement and other qualified plan accounts, as well as NOW accounts.