Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK – Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday morning.

Separately, Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Equity Bancshares from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, March 8th.

Shares of NASDAQ:EQBK opened at $31.22 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $31.53. The firm has a market cap of $520.13 million, a PE ratio of 9.26 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Equity Bancshares has a 12 month low of $28.01 and a 12 month high of $36.00.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 19th. The bank reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.30. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 26.61% and a return on equity of 14.20%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equity Bancshares will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 30th. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.50%.

In other news, Director Gregory L. Gaeddert sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.79, for a total value of $65,580.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQBK. Summit Global Investments bought a new position in Equity Bancshares during the first quarter worth about $333,000. Winning Points Advisors LLC bought a new position in Equity Bancshares during the first quarter worth about $388,000. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Equity Bancshares by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,080,716 shares of the bank’s stock worth $36,668,000 after purchasing an additional 21,460 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in Equity Bancshares by 29,288.1% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 32,033 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,087,000 after purchasing an additional 31,924 shares during the period. Finally, Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC bought a new position in Equity Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $509,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.08% of the company’s stock.

About Equity Bancshares (Get Rating)

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate-backed, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products to national and regional companies, restaurant franchisees, hoteliers, real estate developers, manufacturing and industrial companies, agribusiness companies, and other businesses.

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