Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Still a Buy?

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday . 60,427 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 23% from the previous session’s volume of 49,086 shares.The stock last traded at $42.18 and had previously closed at $42.36.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQBK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stephens upgraded Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Equity Bancshares Trading Up 0.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $45.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $651.35 million, a P/E ratio of 38.73 and a beta of 0.90.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.77 million. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 6.36%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 247.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 23,308 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $953,000 after buying an additional 16,595 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,809,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 314,889 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,919,000 after purchasing an additional 8,103 shares during the period. PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity Bancshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $282,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Equity Bancshares by 4.1% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 37,735 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481 shares during the period. 71.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Equity Bancshares

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.