Insider Selling: Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) COO Sells 278 Shares of Stock

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) COO Julie A. Huber sold 278 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.86, for a total transaction of $12,193.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 57,037 shares in the company, valued at $2,501,642.82. This trade represents a 0.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Equity Bancshares Stock Down 0.2 %

Equity Bancshares stock opened at $43.94 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $44.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.28. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.44 and a 1-year high of $50.85. The company has a market cap of $671.78 million, a PE ratio of 11.04 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Equity Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on EQBK. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Equity Bancshares from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Hovde Group boosted their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $50.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.00.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Foundry Partners LLC increased its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 13.8% in the third quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 119,525 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,886,000 after buying an additional 14,540 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 247.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 23,308 shares of the bank’s stock worth $953,000 after acquiring an additional 16,595 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Equity Bancshares by 175.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 112,292 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,590,000 after purchasing an additional 71,547 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Equity Bancshares by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 360,457 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,735,000 after purchasing an additional 17,431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Equity Bancshares during the third quarter worth $2,809,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.