Equity Bancshares, Inc. (EQBK) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 27th

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 15th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share by the bank on Monday, April 15th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th.

Equity Bancshares has a payout ratio of 11.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Equity Bancshares to earn $4.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.0%.

Equity Bancshares Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EQBK traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $33.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,108 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,883. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $32.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $513.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.36 and a beta of 0.88. Equity Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $20.50 and a fifty-two week high of $34.99.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The bank reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.12. The company had revenue of ($3.95) million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.67 million. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.60% and a net margin of 3.43%. As a group, analysts forecast that Equity Bancshares will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Equity Bancshares

In other news, General Counsel Brett A. Reber sold 959 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total value of $30,822.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 29,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $936,784.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Brett A. Reber sold 959 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total value of $30,822.26. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 29,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $936,784.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Julie A. Huber sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total transaction of $33,747.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 56,918 shares in the company, valued at $1,829,344.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,478 shares of company stock worth $268,894 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity Bancshares

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Equity Bancshares by 0.7% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,368,428 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,903,000 after purchasing an additional 9,648 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,252,090 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,523,000 after buying an additional 58,816 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 786,927 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,177,000 after acquiring an additional 35,591 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 0.4% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 461,579 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,914,000 after acquiring an additional 1,746 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Equity Bancshares by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 327,284 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,008,000 after purchasing an additional 11,541 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 7th.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.