Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Shares Gap Up to $31.84

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $31.84, but opened at $33.15. Equity Bancshares shares last traded at $33.13, with a volume of 4,387 shares trading hands.

Equity Bancshares Stock Down 2.3 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $479.72 million, a P/E ratio of 51.78 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The bank reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.12. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.27% and a net margin of 3.88%. The firm had revenue of ($3.95) million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.67 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.00%.

Insider Transactions at Equity Bancshares

In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 6,290 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.57, for a total transaction of $198,575.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,088 shares in the company, valued at $4,801,418.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 6,290 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.57, for a total transaction of $198,575.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,088 shares in the company, valued at $4,801,418.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Julie A. Huber sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total transaction of $33,747.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 56,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,829,344.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,478 shares of company stock worth $268,894. Company insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EQBK. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 8.2% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 72,556 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,344,000 after buying an additional 5,470 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 56.3% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 7,241 shares of the bank’s stock worth $234,000 after buying an additional 2,609 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 3.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 680,155 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,976,000 after buying an additional 20,950 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 8.5% in the first quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 28,050 shares of the bank’s stock worth $906,000 after buying an additional 2,190 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 9.8% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 8,584 shares of the bank’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 764 shares during the period. 71.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Equity Bancshares

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, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.