Weiss Ratings Reaffirms “Buy (B-)” Rating for South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI)

South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI)‘s stock had its “buy (b-)” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Weiss Ratings in a report released on Saturday,Weiss Ratings reports.

SPFI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler cut South Plains Financial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $41.00 in a report on Friday. Zacks Research downgraded South Plains Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of South Plains Financial in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on South Plains Financial from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Hovde Group lifted their target price on South Plains Financial from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.00.

South Plains Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SPFI opened at $38.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $625.24 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.11. South Plains Financial has a 52-week low of $30.01 and a 52-week high of $42.38.

South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $54.18 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.07 million. South Plains Financial had a return on equity of 13.40% and a net margin of 20.09%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that South Plains Financial will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other South Plains Financial news, Director Richard D. Campbell sold 44,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.21, for a total value of $1,786,007.57. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,544,969 shares in the company, valued at $62,123,203.49. The trade was a 2.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 25.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SPFI. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in South Plains Financial in the first quarter valued at about $616,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in South Plains Financial by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 678,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,475,000 after purchasing an additional 15,942 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of South Plains Financial by 352.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 92,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,072,000 after buying an additional 72,269 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of South Plains Financial in the first quarter worth about $1,809,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of South Plains Financial by 7.2% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 83,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,755,000 after buying an additional 5,617 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.95% of the company’s stock.

South Plains Financial Company Profile

South Plains Financial, Inc operates as a bank holding company for City Bank that provides commercial and consumer financial services to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals. The company operates through two segments, Banking and Insurance. It offers deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, interest-bearing products, savings accounts, and certificate of deposits.