Short Interest in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Grows By 101.5%

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,203,487 shares, a growth of 101.5% from the August 15th total of 2,582,782 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 460,255 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 11.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $45.50 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $47.67.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

ServisFirst Bancshares stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $42.36. 677,852 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 481,480. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The business has a fifty day moving average of $43.62 and a 200 day moving average of $40.75. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 1-year low of $33.60 and a 1-year high of $46.04. The company has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a PE ratio of 14.43 and a beta of 0.85.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.78. The company had revenue of $168.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $167.85 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 30.95% and a return on equity of 17.42%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of ServisFirst Bancshares

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SFBS. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $670,908,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,133,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $82,565,000 after purchasing an additional 10,008 shares during the period. Davis Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the second quarter worth $78,975,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the first quarter valued at about $54,879,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $47,908,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Its principal subsidiary, ServisFirst Bank, provides banking and financial services to businesses, professionals and individuals.

ServisFirst Bank offers commercial and consumer lending, deposit accounts, cash and treasury management, online and mobile banking, mortgage services, and wealth management solutions. Its lending activities include commercial real estate, construction, commercial and industrial, residential mortgage and consumer loans.

Founded in 2005, ServisFirst Bancshares has expanded its banking operations across several Southeastern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.