FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) was the target of a large drop in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 459,600 shares, a drop of 9.9% from the October 15th total of 509,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 146,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Activity at FB Financial

In related news, Director James W. Iv Cross sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.22, for a total value of $291,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,148,421.16. The trade was a 8.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder James W. Ayers bought 1,500 shares of FB Financial stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $49.58 per share, with a total value of $74,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,892,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $540,042,266.78. This trade represents a 0.01 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 13,000 shares of company stock valued at $658,460. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FB Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FBK. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of FB Financial in the third quarter valued at about $47,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in FB Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $84,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in FB Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $110,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in FB Financial in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $124,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in FB Financial in the 1st quarter worth approximately $165,000. Institutional investors own 65.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FBK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on FB Financial from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Hovde Group cut FB Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of FB Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.60.

FB Financial Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE FBK opened at $54.78 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.96. FB Financial has a twelve month low of $32.09 and a twelve month high of $58.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92 and a beta of 1.12.

FB Financial (NYSE:FBK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.04. FB Financial had a net margin of 14.40% and a return on equity of 10.38%. The company had revenue of $169.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.44 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that FB Financial will post 3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FB Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. FB Financial’s payout ratio is 29.69%.

About FB Financial

FB Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for FirstBank that provides a suite of commercial and consumer banking services to businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates in segments, such as Banking and Mortgage. It offers checking, demand, money market, and savings accounts; deposit and lending products and services to corporate, commercial, and consumer customers; and time deposits and certificates of deposits, as well as residential mortgage loans.