ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold”

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $89.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Hovde Group boosted their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial raised ServisFirst Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.67.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS stock opened at $74.62 on Monday. ServisFirst Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $66.48 and a fifty-two week high of $90.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.75 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.21.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $162.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.82 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 26.95% and a return on equity of 16.36%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 5.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of ServisFirst Bancshares

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SFBS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 196,248 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted 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 valued at $217,130,000 after purchasing an additional 129,732 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted 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 valued at $176,890,000 after purchasing an additional 82,912 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,079,628 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $77,506,000 after purchasing an additional 117,464 shares during the period. Finally, Welch Group LLC grew its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 1,003,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,041,000 after purchasing an additional 19,727 shares during the period. 67.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ServisFirst Bancshares

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.