ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

Shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) have earned an average rating of “Buy” from the five analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $94.3333.

SFBS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Zacks Research lowered shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st.

Institutional Trading of ServisFirst Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SFBS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,081,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $436,623,000 after purchasing an additional 196,248 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 5.1% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,696,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $217,130,000 after purchasing an additional 129,732 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,463,986 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $176,890,000 after purchasing an additional 82,912 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,133,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,565,000 after acquiring an additional 10,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,079,628 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,506,000 after acquiring an additional 117,464 shares in the last quarter. 67.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of SFBS opened at $82.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 0.88. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 12-month low of $67.20 and a 12-month high of $90.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $77.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.42.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $158.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.07 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 28.80% and a return on equity of 16.95%. Equities research analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 6.4 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 28.04%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and the parent of ServisFirst Bank. The company specializes in commercial banking services, catering primarily to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs. Its product portfolio encompasses commercial real estate lending, commercial and industrial loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other ancillary banking products designed to meet the financial needs of its clients.

ServisFirst Bank offers a full suite of deposit products, including interest-bearing checking, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, as well as a variety of loan products.