Citigroup Inc. Increases Holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS - Free Report) by 24.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 82,707 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 16,219 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned approximately 0.15% of ServisFirst Bancshares worth $6,654,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of SFBS. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 4,880.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 996 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 138.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 921 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares during the second quarter valued at approximately $84,000. LMR Partners LLP bought a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter worth approximately $203,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,328 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SFBS has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered ServisFirst Bancshares from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday, November 24th. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on ServisFirst Bancshares from $80.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.20, for a total value of $85,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $724,285.20. This represents a 10.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Rodney Eldon Rushing sold 12,000 shares of ServisFirst Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total transaction of $966,960.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 307,837 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,805,505.46. The trade was a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SFBS stock traded down $1.30 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $95.78. The stock had a trading volume of 126,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 234,357. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61 and a beta of 0.86. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $50.56 and a one year high of $101.37. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $87.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.31.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.13. ServisFirst Bancshares had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 14.23%. The company had revenue of $256.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. ServisFirst Bancshares's payout ratio is 32.09%.

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.