Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Upgraded at Stephens

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

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity Bancshares has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.25.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EQBK opened at $44.28 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $675.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.80 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. Equity Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $22.78 and a fifty-two week high of $44.68. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.52.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.07. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.43% and a net margin of 3.75%. The company had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $54.56 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Equity Bancshares will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This is a boost from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. Equity Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equity Bancshares

In related news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total value of $98,072.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,480,384.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $6,480,384.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction 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. 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 worth $1,351,925 in the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 period. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp lifted its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,320,000 after purchasing an additional 336,742 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 890.4% in the second quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 104,985 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,695,000 after purchasing an additional 94,385 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 80,133 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,276,000 after purchasing an additional 3,399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 79,831 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,810,000 after buying an additional 3,838 shares in the last quarter. 71.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.