ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.34 Per Share

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.335 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. This is a boost from ServisFirst Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

ServisFirst Bancshares has increased its dividend by an average of 16.3% per year over the last three years. ServisFirst Bancshares has a dividend payout ratio of 26.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ServisFirst Bancshares to earn $5.01 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 26.7%.

ServisFirst Bancshares Price Performance

ServisFirst Bancshares stock opened at $85.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $91.23 and a 200-day moving average of $80.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. ServisFirst Bancshares has a 52-week low of $58.05 and a 52-week high of $101.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on SFBS shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on ServisFirst Bancshares from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. 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 note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded ServisFirst Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling at ServisFirst Bancshares

In other news, SVP Henry Fulbrook Abbott sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.20, for a total value of $85,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $724,285.20. The trade was a 10.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 7.40% of the company’s stock.

ServisFirst Bancshares Company Profile

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.