ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Sunday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on ServisFirst Bancshares from $45.50 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ServisFirst Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $47.67.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE SFBS opened at $43.32 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $43.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.78. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.76 and a beta of 0.86. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 12-month low of $33.60 and a 12-month high of $46.04.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.78. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 17.42% and a net margin of 30.95%.The company had revenue of $168.53 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $167.85 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 25.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth about $54,879,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,081,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $436,623,000 after purchasing an additional 196,248 shares during the period. Navigate Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $932,000. Jacobs Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,179,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,056,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

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.