Insider Selling: Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) Director Sells 1,000 Shares of Stock

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) Director Lynda Scearcy sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $30,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 30,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $906,990. This trade represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Sierra Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BSRR traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $29.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,839 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,459. Sierra Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $22.42 and a fifty-two week high of $33.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $392.62 million, a P/E ratio of 10.29 and a beta of 0.84.

Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.07). Sierra Bancorp had a return on equity of 11.21% and a net margin of 19.70%.The company had revenue of $40.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.57 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Sierra Bancorp will post 2.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sierra Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. Sierra Bancorp’s payout ratio is 34.84%.

Institutional Trading of Sierra Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Sierra Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at $960,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Sierra Bancorp by 138.3% during the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,225,000 after acquiring an additional 25,508 shares during the period. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Sierra Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth about $282,000. CSM Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sierra Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth about $5,057,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Sierra Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $612,000. Institutional investors own 55.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BSRR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Sierra Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Sierra Bancorp from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $36.00 target price on shares of Sierra Bancorp in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Sierra Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.50.

Sierra Bancorp Company Profile

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts.