Verition Fund Management LLC Buys New Position in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SFBS. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 103.8% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 10,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 5,258 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 202,133 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,773,000 after buying an additional 14,908 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 24,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,561,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 1.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 472,799 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,876,000 after acquiring an additional 7,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 4.9% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 929,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $58,733,000 after purchasing an additional 43,125 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SFBS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Hovde Group raised their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 24th.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

NYSE:SFBS opened at $93.00 on Monday. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $58.05 and a 12-month high of $101.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.87 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $90.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.13. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.23% and a net margin of 21.16%. The business had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of ServisFirst Bancshares stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.20, for a total value of $85,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $724,285.20. The trade was a 10.53 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total transaction of $966,960.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 307,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,805,505.46. This represents a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About ServisFirst Bancshares

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for ServisFirst Bank that provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers. It accepts demand, time, savings, and other deposits; checking, money market, and IRA accounts; and certificates of deposit. The company's loan products include commercial lending products, including seasonal, bridge, and term loans for working capital, expansion of the business, acquisition of property, and plant and equipment, as well as commercial lines of credit; commercial real estate loans, construction and development loans, and residential real estate loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans, vehicle financing, loans secured by deposits, and secured and unsecured personal loans.