ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Director Christopher J. Mettler Sells 18,000 Shares

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS - Get Free Report) Director Christopher J. Mettler sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.68, for a total value of $1,596,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,546,224.48. This represents a 50.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Performance

NYSE:SFBS traded up $0.78 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $89.30. The company had a trading volume of 19,892 shares, compared to its average volume of 205,673. The firm has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.47 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $88.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.55. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $58.10 and a 52 week high of $101.37.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.08. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.81% and a net margin of 23.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 5.17 EPS for the current year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.335 per share. This is an increase from ServisFirst Bancshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. ServisFirst Bancshares's payout ratio is currently 32.21%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServisFirst Bancshares

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SFBS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,456,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 106.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 857,735 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $72,684,000 after purchasing an additional 442,225 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at about $19,639,000. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ServisFirst Bancshares in the third quarter worth about $10,507,000. Finally, Stonegate Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 947,367 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $80,280,000 after buying an additional 112,521 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on SFBS shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Hovde Group upped 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, StockNews.com upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, January 5th.

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.