ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Stake Boosted by Natixis Advisors LLC

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,221 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares were worth $1,103,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 4,880.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 138.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $84,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $217,000. 67.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at ServisFirst Bancshares

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on SFBS. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, Hovde Group raised their price target 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.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of SFBS stock opened at $97.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.50 and a beta of 0.86. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.72 and a fifty-two week high of $101.37. 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 data on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.23% and a net margin of 21.16%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 32.09%.

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.