First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) Now Covered by StockNews.com

Stock analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) in a report issued on Wednesday. The brokerage set a “sell” rating on the bank’s stock.

FBMS has been the subject of several other research reports. Hovde Group upped their target price on shares of First Bancshares from $29.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, First Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.50.

First Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of FBMS opened at $33.98 on Wednesday. First Bancshares has a twelve month low of $22.96 and a twelve month high of $34.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.48 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.18.

First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $104.35 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.40 million. First Bancshares had a return on equity of 8.82% and a net margin of 18.71%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that First Bancshares will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of First Bancshares

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in First Bancshares in the second quarter worth $4,548,000. Algebris UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of First Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,492,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of First Bancshares by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,115,691 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,724,000 after purchasing an additional 106,088 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in First Bancshares by 65.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 231,635 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,018,000 after buying an additional 91,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning grew its position in First Bancshares by 310.0% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 91,591 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,380,000 after buying an additional 69,254 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.95% of the company’s stock.

About First Bancshares

The First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for The First Bank that provides general commercial and retail banking services. The company operates through three segments: Commercial/Retail Bank, Mortgage Banking Division, and Holding Company. It offers deposit services, including checking, NOW, and savings accounts; other time deposits, such as daily money market accounts and longer-term certificates of deposit; and individual retirement and health savings accounts.