Leavell Investment Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 95,272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,087 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. owned 0.17% of ServisFirst Bancshares worth $8,073,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SFBS. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the 2nd quarter valued at about $253,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 138.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $241,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 216,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,457,000 after purchasing an additional 14,859 shares during the last quarter. 67.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SFBS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 5th. Finally, Hovde Group lifted their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS opened at $92.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.16 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $88.94 and a 200-day moving average of $85.19. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $58.10 and a 52 week high of $101.37.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.81% and a net margin of 23.16%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.17 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.335 dividend. This is a positive change from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.21%.

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.