Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Makes New $234,000 Investment in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new position in ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,913 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $448,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.6% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 32,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,036,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 6.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 43,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,725,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares during the period. 67.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SFBS. StockNews.com downgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, November 24th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of 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 boosted their target price on shares of ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

ServisFirst Bancshares Stock Performance

SFBS opened at $94.36 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a PE ratio of 25.24 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $90.11 and a 200-day moving average of $78.57. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $58.05 and a 52-week high of $101.37.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.13. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.23% and a net margin of 21.16%. The company had revenue of $256.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServisFirst Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.335 per share. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.42%. This is a boost from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. ServisFirst Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 32.09%.

About ServisFirst Bancshares

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.