Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.08 EPS

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.08, Yahoo Finance reports. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 4.30% and a net margin of 6.69%.

Southern First Bancshares Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ SFST opened at $35.85 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $27.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. Southern First Bancshares has a 1-year low of $24.98 and a 1-year high of $39.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $292.39 million, a P/E ratio of 21.86 and a beta of 0.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern First Bancshares

In other Southern First Bancshares news, Director Leighton M. Cubbage sold 1,771 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.34, for a total value of $48,419.14. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 62,664 shares in the company, valued at $1,713,233.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,963 shares of company stock worth $110,306. 7.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Southern First Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd.

About Southern First Bancshares

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.