Insider Buying: Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Director Acquires 1,467 Shares of Stock

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Director Leon Borck purchased 1,467 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,941 shares in the company, valued at $462,952.57. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Equity Bancshares Stock Down 1.6 %

Equity Bancshares stock traded down $0.70 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $41.73. The company had a trading volume of 218,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 49,179. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.78 and a 1 year high of $42.64. The business has a fifty day moving average of $39.32 and a 200 day moving average of $35.45. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.55 and a beta of 0.90.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.56 million. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.43% and a net margin of 3.75%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. This is a boost from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EQBK. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in Equity Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at $271,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 754,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,595,000 after acquiring an additional 30,253 shares during the period. Petiole USA ltd acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $1,945,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $322,000. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 112.5% during the first quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 13,600 shares of the bank’s stock worth $467,000 after purchasing an additional 7,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

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.