Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) Director Leighton Cubbage Sells 465 Shares of Stock

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) Director Leighton Cubbage sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.75, for a total transaction of $28,248.75. Following the transaction, the director owned 48,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,934,225. This represents a 0.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Southern First Bancshares Stock Up 0.5%

SFST stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Thursday, hitting $62.89. 73,997 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 111,501. The firm has a market capitalization of $594.94 million, a P/E ratio of 13.47 and a beta of 0.67. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.90 and a 1 year high of $65.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.57.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The bank reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $20.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.30 million. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 16.78%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SFST. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern First Bancshares in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research lowered Southern First Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Southern First Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $10,998,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 147.3% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 34,706 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,891,000 after acquiring an additional 20,673 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the second quarter valued at about $5,343,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $992,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,736,000. 75.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Southern First Bancshares

Southern First Bancshares is the bank holding company for Southern First Bank, a community-oriented financial institution headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, the company delivers a full spectrum of commercial and consumer banking services designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses, professionals, and individual customers. Southern First Bancshares operates under a relationship-driven model, emphasizing personalized service and local decision–making.

The company’s core offerings include deposit products such as checking, savings, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, alongside an array of lending solutions covering commercial real estate, construction, equipment financing and small business administration (SBA) loans.