ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.335 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. This is a boost from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

ServisFirst Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.3% annually over the last three years. ServisFirst Bancshares has a payout ratio of 23.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ServisFirst Bancshares to earn $5.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.0%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE:SFBS traded up $1.36 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $94.36. The company had a trading volume of 182,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 203,231. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 1 year low of $58.05 and a 1 year high of $101.37. The company has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average of $90.11 and a 200 day moving average of $78.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on SFBS shares. Hovde Group increased their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $966,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 307,837 shares in the company, valued at $24,805,505.46. The trade was a 3.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $724,285.20. The trade was 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 owned by insiders.

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.