Hovde Group Raises ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) Price Target to $76.00

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) had its target price upped by Hovde Group from $68.00 to $76.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Down 1.9 %

SFBS opened at $77.39 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $63.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20 and a beta of 0.89. ServisFirst Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $45.21 and a fifty-two week high of $81.96. 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 (NYSE:SFBS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $111.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.14 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.19% and a net margin of 21.25%. On average, research analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.88%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServisFirst Bancshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at $36,103,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 34.0% in the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,438,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $95,484,000 after buying an additional 364,720 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC increased its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 2,663.4% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 266,665 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,696,000 after buying an additional 257,015 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 4.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,699,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $378,228,000 after acquiring an additional 221,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 213.9% in the first quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 110,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,310,000 after acquiring an additional 75,069 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

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.