ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.30

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFBS) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be given a dividend of 0.30 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th.

ServisFirst Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 10 years. ServisFirst Bancshares has a dividend payout ratio of 28.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ServisFirst Bancshares to earn $4.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.0%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ SFBS opened at $63.80 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.97. ServisFirst Bancshares has a twelve month low of $39.27 and a twelve month high of $70.84. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a PE ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFBS) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $109.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.00 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 15.48% and a net margin of 24.52%. On average, research analysts predict that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on SFBS shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $55.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 389,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,975,000 after acquiring an additional 56,626 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 107,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,137,000 after purchasing an additional 41,736 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,478,138 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $365,008,000 after purchasing an additional 47,885 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC acquired a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $278,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 67.9% during the 4th quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 101,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,774,000 after purchasing an additional 41,127 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

About ServisFirst Bancshares

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for ServisFirst Bank that provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers. It accepts demand, time, savings, and other deposits; checking, money market, and IRA accounts; and certificates of deposit. The company's loan products include commercial lending products, including seasonal, bridge, and term loans for working capital, expansion of the business, acquisition of property, and plant and equipment, as well as commercial lines of credit; commercial real estate loans, construction and development loans, and residential real estate loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans, vehicle financing, loans secured by deposits, and secured and unsecured personal loans.