ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday morning.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on SFBS. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Hovde Group raised their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS stock opened at $93.25 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.73. The company has a market cap of $5.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. ServisFirst Bancshares has a twelve month low of $49.72 and a twelve month high of $100.14.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $120.70 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 14.23%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 4.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 32.09%.

Insider Activity at ServisFirst Bancshares

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total transaction of $966,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 307,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,805,505.46. This represents a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.20, for a total value of $85,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $724,285.20. This represents a 10.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of ServisFirst Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 2,704.5% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 415,510 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,428,000 after purchasing an additional 400,694 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 4.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,699,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,228,000 after buying an additional 221,507 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter worth about $10,507,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $7,181,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,037,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,466,000 after acquiring an additional 108,088 shares during the period. 67.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for ServisFirst Bank that provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers. It accepts demand, time, savings, and other deposits; checking, money market, and IRA accounts; and certificates of deposit. The company's loan products include commercial lending products, including seasonal, bridge, and term loans for working capital, expansion of the business, acquisition of property, and plant and equipment, as well as commercial lines of credit; commercial real estate loans, construction and development loans, and residential real estate loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans, vehicle financing, loans secured by deposits, and secured and unsecured personal loans.