Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.62 Million in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. $SFBS

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 22,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,624,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,081,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $436,623,000 after acquiring an additional 196,248 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,463,986 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $176,890,000 after purchasing an additional 82,912 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,079,628 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,506,000 after purchasing an additional 117,464 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC raised its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 1,003,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,041,000 after purchasing an additional 19,727 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 307,426.8% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 919,505 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,011,000 after purchasing an additional 919,206 shares during the last quarter. 67.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research lowered ServisFirst Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.33.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Up 2.4%

ServisFirst Bancshares stock opened at $88.84 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $79.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39 and a beta of 0.86. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $67.20 and a 52 week high of $90.64.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $158.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.07 million. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.95% and a net margin of 28.80%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 6.4 earnings per share for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 28.04%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Profile

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and the parent of ServisFirst Bank. The company specializes in commercial banking services, catering primarily to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs. Its product portfolio encompasses commercial real estate lending, commercial and industrial loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other ancillary banking products designed to meet the financial needs of its clients.

ServisFirst Bank offers a full suite of deposit products, including interest-bearing checking, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, as well as a variety of loan products.