Foundry Partners LLC Has $4.89 Million Holdings in Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK)

Foundry Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 119,525 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,540 shares during the quarter. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in Equity Bancshares were worth $4,886,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Equity Bancshares by 97.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,190 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 3,541 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 754,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,917,000 after acquiring an additional 10,868 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Equity Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth $42,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 79,831 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,810,000 after purchasing an additional 3,838 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 19,240 shares of the bank’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Equity Bancshares Trading Up 2.5 %

NASDAQ EQBK opened at $47.71 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $729.45 million, a P/E ratio of 43.37 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $24.92 and a one year high of $48.61.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.32. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 6.36% and a return on equity of 13.53%. The company had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.77 million. Research analysts expect that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.55%.

Insider Activity at Equity Bancshares

In other Equity Bancshares news, Director Leon Borck purchased 1,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the purchase, the director now owns 11,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $462,952.57. This trade represents a 14.01 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total transaction of $98,072.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,480,384.56. The trade was a 1.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQBK has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Stephens raised Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.