Wall Street Zen Upgrades Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) to “Buy”

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Zacks Research upgraded Southern First Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Southern First Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern First Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

Southern First Bancshares Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of Southern First Bancshares stock opened at $51.61 on Friday. Southern First Bancshares has a twelve month low of $29.14 and a twelve month high of $52.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $45.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.16. The firm has a market cap of $422.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.98 and a beta of 0.85.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The bank reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $31.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.20 million. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 11.83%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southern First Bancshares will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southern First Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the first quarter worth $616,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 4.0% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 101,461 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,340,000 after acquiring an additional 3,902 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 0.7% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,974 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $26,434,000 after purchasing an additional 5,931 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Southern First Bancshares by 44.8% during the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 8,535 shares of the bank’s stock worth $281,000 after purchasing an additional 2,639 shares during the period. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC raised its position in Southern First Bancshares by 10.9% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 36,650 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,207,000 after purchasing an additional 3,609 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.00% of the company’s stock.

Southern First Bancshares Company Profile

Southern First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans to the general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit.