Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Upgraded to Overweight at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. Stephens currently has $46.00 target price on the bank’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $39.25.

Equity Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ EQBK opened at $41.75 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $39.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Equity Bancshares has a 1 year low of $22.78 and a 1 year high of $42.64. The company has a market capitalization of $636.81 million, a PE ratio of 69.58 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.07. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.43% and a net margin of 3.75%. The firm had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.56 million. As a group, analysts expect that Equity Bancshares will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. Equity Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total transaction of $98,072.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,480,384.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total value of $1,007,912.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,161,674.24. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 33,101 shares of company stock valued at $1,351,925 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 8.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Foundry Partners LLC increased its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 890.4% during the 2nd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 104,985 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,695,000 after purchasing an additional 94,385 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 754,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,917,000 after acquiring an additional 10,868 shares during the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its position in Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,320,000 after purchasing an additional 336,742 shares during the period. ELCO Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 3.1% during the second quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 13,673 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $481,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares during the period. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 112.5% during the 1st quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 13,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 7,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Equity Bancshares Company Profile

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.