PDT Partners LLC Invests $282,000 in Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK)

PDT Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,895 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 754,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,917,000 after acquiring an additional 10,868 shares in the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,320,000 after acquiring an additional 336,742 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 119,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,886,000 after acquiring an additional 14,540 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 175.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 112,292 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,590,000 after acquiring an additional 71,547 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 80,133 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,276,000 after acquiring an additional 3,399 shares in the last quarter. 71.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EQBK opened at $47.76 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.43 and a 1 year high of $50.85. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.52. The firm has a market cap of $730.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.42 and a beta of 0.90.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.32. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 6.36%. The business had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.77 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on EQBK shares. Stephens raised Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equity Bancshares

In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total transaction of $98,072.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares in the company, valued at $6,480,384.56. This trade represents a 1.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Leon Borck bought 1,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 11,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $462,952.57. This represents a 14.01 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

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.