Stifel Financial Corp Trims Stock Position in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Stifel Financial Corp lowered its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 12.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 95,660 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 13,753 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares were worth $7,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of SFBS. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 4,880.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 138.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the second quarter worth $84,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP acquired a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at ServisFirst Bancshares

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total transaction of $966,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 307,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,805,505.46. This trade represents a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction 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 approximately $724,285.20. This represents a 10.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Hovde Group boosted their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, November 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SFBS opened at $93.66 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.11. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.18 and a 52 week high of $101.37. The company has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.04 and a beta of 0.88. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.13. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 14.23%. The company had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $120.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.