Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its position in Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 776,329 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,805 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.05% of Equity Bancshares worth $27,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Petiole USA ltd purchased a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,945,000. Foundry Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 890.4% in the second quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 104,985 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,695,000 after acquiring an additional 94,385 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Equity Bancshares by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 754,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,917,000 after buying an additional 10,868 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC lifted its position in Equity Bancshares by 112.5% during the first quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 13,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $467,000 after buying an additional 7,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares during the first quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ EQBK opened at $38.59 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $588.61 million, a PE ratio of 64.32 and a beta of 0.90. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.78 and a 1 year high of $42.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $39.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.02.

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

Equity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. This is a boost from Equity Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total value of $1,007,912.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,616 shares in the company, valued at $6,161,674.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total transaction of $98,072.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,480,384.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total value 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. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 33,101 shares of company stock valued at $1,351,925 over the last 90 days. 8.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on EQBK shares. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

Equity Bancshares 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.