USCB Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:USCB) Short Interest Up 139.2% in March

USCB Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:USCB - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 138,500 shares, a growth of 139.2% from the March 15th total of 57,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 27,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days. Currently, 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its stake in USCB Financial by 57.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 32,400 shares of the company's stock worth $494,000 after buying an additional 11,866 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in USCB Financial by 70.6% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 45,967 shares of the company's stock worth $816,000 after acquiring an additional 19,028 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of USCB Financial by 228.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 19,686 shares of the company's stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 13,692 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of USCB Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $332,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in USCB Financial by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 237,892 shares of the company's stock worth $3,628,000 after purchasing an additional 3,250 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.34% of the company's stock.

USCB Financial Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:USCB traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $17.06. 23,978 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 27,872. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. USCB Financial has a twelve month low of $10.25 and a twelve month high of $21.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $342.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.87 and a beta of 0.65. The business's fifty day moving average price is $18.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.96.

USCB Financial (NASDAQ:USCB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.02). USCB Financial had a return on equity of 12.14% and a net margin of 17.14%. On average, research analysts predict that USCB Financial will post 1.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

USCB Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from USCB Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. USCB Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James cut USCB Financial from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd.

USCB Financial Company Profile

USCB Financial Holdings, Inc operates as the bank holding company for U.S. Century Bank that engages in the provision of various personal and business banking products and services in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, including commercial and consumer checking, money market deposit, savings, and time deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.