Wallace Advisory Group LLC Decreases Holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Wallace Advisory Group LLC lowered its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 241 shares during the quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares were worth $300,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SFBS. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 411.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,711 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 3,790 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 11.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,037,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $83,466,000 after acquiring an additional 108,088 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 13,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after acquiring an additional 2,080 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp acquired a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $93,126,000 after purchasing an additional 23,555 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Hovde Group boosted their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target 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.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS opened at $82.54 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $91.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.37. The stock has a market cap of $4.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.07 and a beta of 0.91. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $58.05 and a 1-year high of $101.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.13. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 14.23%. The firm had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.335 per share. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. This is a boost from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ServisFirst Bancshares

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.20, for a total transaction of $85,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,501 shares in the company, valued at $724,285.20. This represents a 10.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

ServisFirst Bancshares 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.