R Arthur Seaver, Jr. Sells 2,500 Shares of Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) Stock

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) CEO R Arthur Seaver, Jr. sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.13, for a total value of $77,825.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,831,896.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Southern First Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of SFST stock opened at $30.37 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.50. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a one year low of $20.75 and a one year high of $39.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.82 million, a PE ratio of 18.30 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The bank reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 4.41% and a net margin of 7.16%. The business had revenue of $51.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.46 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southern First Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 397,247 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,738,000 after buying an additional 3,229 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 27.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 151,436 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,618,000 after purchasing an additional 32,621 shares during the period. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp acquired a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth approximately $286,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 20,121 shares of the bank’s stock worth $746,000 after purchasing an additional 817 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 26,847 shares of the bank’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 7,707 shares during the period. 79.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SFST has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Southern First Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler raised Southern First Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $44.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd.

About Southern First Bancshares

Southern First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans to the general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit.