Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Acquires Shares of 16,368 Southern First Bancshares, Inc. $SFST

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 16,368 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $654,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC owned 0.20% of Southern First Bancshares as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the first quarter valued at approximately $616,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Southern First Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at $448,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Southern First Bancshares by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 65,440 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,601,000 after acquiring an additional 11,537 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares in the 1st quarter worth about $303,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 9,638.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,012 shares of the bank’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 6,940 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.00% of the company’s stock.

Southern First Bancshares Stock Up 1.4%

SFST opened at $43.92 on Friday. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.14 and a twelve month high of $46.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $359.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.27 and a beta of 0.81.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $28.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.80 million. Southern First Bancshares had a net margin of 10.09% and a return on equity of 6.52%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SFST has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Southern First Bancshares from $43.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Southern First Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Southern First Bancshares in a report on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern First Bancshares currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Southern First Bancshares Company Profile

Southern First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans to the general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit.