ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 15th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.335 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, October 10th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st.

ServisFirst Bancshares has a payout ratio of 22.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ServisFirst Bancshares to earn $6.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.34 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.8%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE:SFBS opened at $82.66 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 1 year low of $66.48 and a 1 year high of $101.37. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.59.

ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.01. ServisFirst Bancshares had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 24.62%.The firm had revenue of $132.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that ServisFirst Bancshares will post 5.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ServisFirst Bancshares news, CEO Thomas A. Broughton sold 22,206 shares of ServisFirst Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.99, for a total value of $1,953,905.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 592,588 shares in the company, valued at $52,141,818.12. The trade was a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 6.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServisFirst Bancshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in ServisFirst Bancshares by 68.9% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,217,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $183,153,000 after purchasing an additional 904,445 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $47,309,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 231.6% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 326,702 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,323,000 after buying an additional 228,187 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of ServisFirst Bancshares by 25.1% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,072,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,598,000 after buying an additional 214,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in ServisFirst Bancshares by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,902,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $487,525,000 after purchasing an additional 187,715 shares in the last quarter. 67.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.