Stephens Upgrades Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) to Overweight

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) was upgraded by stock analysts at Stephens from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $46.00 price objective on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 6.24% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

Equity Bancshares Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of EQBK opened at $43.30 on Monday. Equity Bancshares has a 52 week low of $22.78 and a 52 week high of $43.90. The firm has a market cap of $660.45 million, a P/E ratio of 72.17 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.56 million. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.43%. On average, analysts forecast that Equity Bancshares will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Equity Bancshares

In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,161,674.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Gregory L. Gaeddert sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.99, for a total transaction of $245,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,675.33. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,161,674.24. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,101 shares of company stock valued at $1,351,925. Company insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 80,133 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,276,000 after acquiring an additional 3,399 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Equity Bancshares by 74.1% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,052 shares of the bank’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,150 shares in the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp increased its position in Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,320,000 after purchasing an additional 336,742 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Equity Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $322,000. Finally, ELCO Management Co. LLC increased its position in Equity Bancshares by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 13,673 shares of the bank’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Equity Bancshares Company Profile

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.