Walleye Capital LLC Acquires New Position in Southern First Bancshares, Inc. $SFST

Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 179,992 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $10,998,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SFST. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 40.2% during the fourth quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 666 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 28.7% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,380 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 154.0% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,633 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 990 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares in the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. 75.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Julie Ann Fairchild sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $94,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 5,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $327,600. The trade was a 22.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Leighton M. Cubbage sold 765 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.60, for a total value of $46,359.00. Following the sale, the director owned 50,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,329. This represents a 1.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,518 shares of company stock worth $155,857. Insiders own 6.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SFST has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Southern First Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern First Bancshares in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Southern First Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern First Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $64.00.

Southern First Bancshares Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of Southern First Bancshares stock opened at $64.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $607.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.74 and a beta of 0.68. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $61.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.06. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.90 and a 1 year high of $65.09.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The bank reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.01. Southern First Bancshares had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The business had revenue of $20.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.30 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.