Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. Purchases 12,130 Shares of First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC)

Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. lifted its position in shares of First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC – Get Rating) by 16.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 84,320 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,130 shares during the quarter. First Republic Bank makes up 1.5% of Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in First Republic Bank were worth $10,278,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in First Republic Bank in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in First Republic Bank by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 372 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Alta Advisers Ltd bought a new stake in First Republic Bank in the 3rd quarter valued at about $78,000. Hall Laurie J Trustee bought a new stake in First Republic Bank in the 4th quarter valued at about $91,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in First Republic Bank in the 3rd quarter valued at about $116,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on First Republic Bank from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Raymond James cut First Republic Bank from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 13th. Compass Point cut First Republic Bank from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $168.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, March 13th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on First Republic Bank in a research report on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, Sterne Agee CRT upped their price target on First Republic Bank from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.90.

First Republic Bank Price Performance

FRC traded down $11.24 on Friday, reaching $23.03. The company had a trading volume of 149,193,892 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,675,478. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $119.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.83. The company has a market cap of $4.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.93. First Republic Bank has a 52-week low of $17.53 and a 52-week high of $174.21.

First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 13th. The bank reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. First Republic Bank had a net margin of 24.66% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The business’s revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that First Republic Bank will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

First Republic Bank Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 26th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 25th. First Republic Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.09%.

First Republic Bank Company Profile

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First Republic Bank engages in the provision of private banking, business banking, real estate lending, and wealth management, including trust and custody services. It operates through the Commercial Banking and Wealth Management segments. The Commercial Banking segment represents most of the operations, including real estate secured lending, retail deposit gathering, private banking activities, mortgage sales and servicing, and managing capital, liquidity, and interest rate risk.