Equities Analysts Offer Predictions for EQBK Q4 Earnings

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) – Equities researchers at DA Davidson issued their Q4 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Equity Bancshares in a research report issued on Thursday, October 17th. DA Davidson analyst J. Rulis expects that the bank will post earnings of $0.93 per share for the quarter. DA Davidson has a “Neutral” rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Equity Bancshares’ current full-year earnings is $4.01 per share.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on EQBK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity Bancshares currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.00.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

EQBK opened at $43.90 on Friday. 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 52-week low of $22.78 and a 52-week high of $45.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $669.61 million, a PE ratio of 73.17 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $40.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.69.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $55.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.56 million.

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is an increase from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,161,674.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,161,674.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Leon Borck purchased 1,467 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 11,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $462,952.57. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,101 shares of company stock valued at $1,351,925 over the last ninety days. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EQBK. Creative Planning increased its position in Equity Bancshares by 4.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 80,133 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,276,000 after buying an additional 3,399 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 74.1% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,052 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 2,150 shares during the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,320,000 after buying an additional 336,742 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $322,000. Finally, ELCO Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 13,673 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $481,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

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.