ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) has been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $91.00.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler raised ServisFirst Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $89.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Hovde Group upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $89.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServisFirst Bancshares

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 6.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,094 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $162,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 5,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 28,507 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,210,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 34,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,753,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE SFBS opened at $85.57 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.91 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 52 week low of $66.48 and a 52 week high of $93.43.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.20. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 26.95% and a return on equity of 16.36%. The firm had revenue of $162.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.82 million. Equities research analysts predict that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 5.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is an increase from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.04%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and the parent of ServisFirst Bank. The company specializes in commercial banking services, catering primarily to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs. Its product portfolio encompasses commercial real estate lending, commercial and industrial loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other ancillary banking products designed to meet the financial needs of its clients.

ServisFirst Bank offers a full suite of deposit products, including interest-bearing checking, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, as well as a variety of loan products.