ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. $SFBS Shares Purchased by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 6.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 762,392 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,926 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares were worth $59,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SFBS. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 68.9% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,217,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $183,153,000 after purchasing an additional 904,445 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,902,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $487,525,000 after buying an additional 187,715 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $12,726,000. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,936,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 107.3% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 146,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,096,000 after acquiring an additional 75,799 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Performance

NYSE SFBS opened at $71.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $74.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 0.87. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $66.48 and a fifty-two week high of $98.50.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 10th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 25.24% and a return on equity of 15.67%. The company had revenue of $104.27 million for the quarter. On average, research analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.17 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were given a dividend of $0.335 per share. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SFBS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Hovde Group reduced their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $92.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Zacks Research cut ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ServisFirst Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.67.

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.