Southern First Bancshares, Inc. $SFST Shares Acquired by T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 802,974 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,931 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Southern First Bancshares worth $26,434,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Southern First Bancshares by 9,638.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,012 shares of the bank’s stock worth $213,000 after purchasing an additional 6,940 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Southern First Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth approximately $286,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in Southern First Bancshares by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 7,506 shares of the bank’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 986 shares during the period. Wagner Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Southern First Bancshares by 49.5% in the first quarter. Wagner Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,306 shares of the bank’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 2,750 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Southern First Bancshares by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,114 shares of the bank’s stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,455 shares during the period. 75.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Piper Sandler upped their target price on Southern First Bancshares from $43.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern First Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Insider Activity

In other Southern First Bancshares news, Director Leighton M. Cubbage sold 1,083 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.72, for a total value of $38,684.76. Following the transaction, the director owned 51,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,829,042.60. This represents a 2.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 7.06% of the company’s stock.

Southern First Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ SFST opened at $44.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $367.61 million, a P/E ratio of 16.64 and a beta of 0.83. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.14 and a 1 year high of $45.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.10.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $28.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.80 million. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 6.52% and a net margin of 10.09%. On average, research analysts forecast that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern First Bancshares Profile

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.