Bessemer Group Inc. Grows Stake in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. $SFBS

Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 23,369 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,408 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares were worth $1,812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 6.0% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,056,878 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $87,298,000 after buying an additional 3,405 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 164,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,581,000 after buying an additional 11,194 shares during the last quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $316,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SFBS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James Financial raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Zacks Research cut shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Hovde Group cut their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $92.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.67.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of ServisFirst Bancshares stock opened at $69.04 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $81.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $66.48 and a 12-month high of $101.37. The company has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.78 and a beta of 0.85.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 10th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 25.24% and a return on equity of 15.93%. The company had revenue of $104.27 million during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were issued a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.69%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Thomas A. Broughton sold 22,206 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.99, for a total value of $1,953,905.94. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 592,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,141,818.12. This trade represents a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 6.70% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

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.