ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. $SFBS Shares Purchased by Wasatch Advisors LP

Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 14.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 552,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 70,298 shares during the quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP owned approximately 1.01% of ServisFirst Bancshares worth $40,213,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 523.6% in the 4th quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 343 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the second quarter worth $29,000. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $32,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 111.1% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,195 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SFBS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on ServisFirst Bancshares from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Wall Street Zen raised ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Hovde Group boosted their target price on ServisFirst Bancshares from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. One equities 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $94.33.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SFBS opened at $88.41 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $79.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.21. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $67.20 and a 12 month high of $90.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.31 and a beta of 0.88.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $158.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $162.07 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 28.80% and a return on equity of 16.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 6.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 28.04%.

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.