Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Stake in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 24,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SFBS. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the first quarter valued at $39,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $52,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $67,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 223.2% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 7.0% during the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 4,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. 67.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Up 1.9 %

ServisFirst Bancshares stock opened at $60.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $39.27 and a 1 year high of $70.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $63.07 and its 200-day moving average is $59.23. The company has a market cap of $3.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.87 and a beta of 0.88.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 24.52% and a return on equity of 15.48%. The business had revenue of $109.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.00 million. On average, equities analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.51 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on SFBS shares. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $55.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd.

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.