Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. Sells 2,700 Shares of The First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FBMS)

Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. reduced its holdings in shares of The First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FBMS) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 198,825 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,700 shares during the quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. owned approximately 0.64% of First Bancshares worth $5,165,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FBMS. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in First Bancshares by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 74,679 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,190,000 after purchasing an additional 3,073 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of First Bancshares by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 19,149 shares of the bank’s stock worth $562,000 after buying an additional 6,063 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of First Bancshares by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,115,691 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,724,000 after buying an additional 106,088 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Bancshares by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 14,370 shares of the bank’s stock worth $421,000 after buying an additional 2,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth $87,000. 69.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on FBMS. StockNews.com started coverage on First Bancshares in a research report on Sunday, August 25th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Hovde Group lifted their price target on First Bancshares from $29.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.50.

First Bancshares Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of First Bancshares stock traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $34.26. The company had a trading volume of 175,055 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,473. The First Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.96 and a fifty-two week high of $34.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a PE ratio of 13.03 and a beta of 0.93.

First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $104.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.40 million. First Bancshares had a return on equity of 8.82% and a net margin of 18.71%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.92%. First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 39.68%.

First Bancshares Company Profile

The First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for The First Bank that provides general commercial and retail banking services. The company operates through three segments: Commercial/Retail Bank, Mortgage Banking Division, and Holding Company. It offers deposit services, including checking, NOW, and savings accounts; other time deposits, such as daily money market accounts and longer-term certificates of deposit; and individual retirement and health savings accounts.