Short Interest in Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) Declines By 9.3%

Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 77,000 shares, a decline of 9.3% from the September 30th total of 84,900 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 55,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Stephens dropped their price target on Primis Financial from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday.

Institutional Trading of Primis Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FRST. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Primis Financial by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,107,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,479,000 after acquiring an additional 7,312 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Primis Financial by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,104,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,653 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Primis Financial by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 353,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,708,000 after acquiring an additional 12,900 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Primis Financial by 125.1% in the first quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 204,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,495,000 after purchasing an additional 113,911 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Primis Financial by 22.6% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 178,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,867,000 after purchasing an additional 32,896 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.96% of the company’s stock.

Primis Financial Price Performance

FRST stock traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.38. The stock had a trading volume of 11,440 shares, compared to its average volume of 65,502. Primis Financial has a fifty-two week low of $9.34 and a fifty-two week high of $13.69. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $281.31 million, a PE ratio of 12.26 and a beta of 0.75.

Primis Financial (NASDAQ:FRST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $66.40 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Primis Financial will post 1.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Primis Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%.

About Primis Financial

Primis Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Primis Bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals and small and medium sized businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, NOW, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposits.