Alliancebernstein L.P. Grows Stock Holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,986 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.12% of ServisFirst Bancshares worth $5,592,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SFBS. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at $69,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 169.0% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 747 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 52.4% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,326 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $197,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter worth approximately $234,000. 67.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Christopher J. Mettler sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.68, for a total value of $1,596,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,436 shares in the company, valued at $1,546,224.48. The trade was a 50.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 7.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS stock opened at $68.53 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.47 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.54. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $58.11 and a one year high of $101.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 23.16% and a return on equity of 14.81%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.17 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st were given a $0.335 dividend. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares’s payout ratio is 32.21%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Profile

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.