ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $88.00.

SFBS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Hovde Group upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $89.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in a research report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServisFirst Bancshares

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SFBS. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 5.1% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,696,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $217,130,000 after acquiring an additional 129,732 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 983,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,223,000 after purchasing an additional 9,618 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 26.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 962,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $77,483,000 after purchasing an additional 199,772 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 31.6% in the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 667,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,776,000 after purchasing an additional 160,465 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the second quarter valued at $47,309,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Performance

NYSE SFBS opened at $73.80 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $71.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.93. The company has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.80 and a beta of 0.94. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 1-year low of $66.48 and a 1-year high of $93.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 10th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $104.27 million for the quarter. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 15.67% and a net margin of 25.24%. Sell-side analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 5.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This is a positive change from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 28.69%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and the parent of ServisFirst Bank. The company specializes in commercial banking services, catering primarily to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs. Its product portfolio encompasses commercial real estate lending, commercial and industrial loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other ancillary banking products designed to meet the financial needs of its clients.

ServisFirst Bank offers a full suite of deposit products, including interest-bearing checking, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, as well as a variety of loan products.