Welch Group LLC Sells 116,259 Shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Welch Group LLC decreased its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,139,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 116,259 shares during the period. ServisFirst Bancshares accounts for approximately 4.0% of Welch Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Welch Group LLC owned about 2.09% of ServisFirst Bancshares worth $91,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 35.7% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 26,492 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,758,000 after purchasing an additional 6,964 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at $2,125,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,230,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,775,000 after buying an additional 36,302 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC raised its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 286.8% during the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 64,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,048,000 after acquiring an additional 47,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the second quarter worth $408,000. Institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on SFBS. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Up 2.1 %

SFBS stock traded up $1.73 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $84.42. 6,857 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 197,992. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.11 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $80.50 and its 200-day moving average is $70.95. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $46.02 and a 12 month high of $88.86.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $256.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.23% and a net margin of 21.16%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.09%.

Insider Activity at ServisFirst Bancshares

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $966,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 307,837 shares in the company, valued at $24,805,505.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 7.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.